Football – England – Championship Play-Off Semi-Final 1st Leg
Saturday 9th May 2015 – Kickoff: 1215hrs
In Championship terms, it doesn’t get much bigger than this – an east anglian derby in the play-offs with hosts Ipswich Town taking on bitter rivals Norwich City at Portman Road in a lunchtime kickoff on Saturday.
Ipswich town had to settle for a place in the play-offs following a poor run of results in early March where they went four games without a win with three defeats during this sequence, and indeed the Tractor Boys were fortunate to even make the top six as they edged out Wolves on the final day of the season thanks to a superior goal difference over the midlanders despite losing 3-2 away at Blackburn Rovers on the final day.
Prior to that defeat at Rovers though, Ipswich had put together a useful run of four matches without defeat which included wins over Blackpool, Cardiff City and Nottingham Forest (all recorded at Portman Road I might add). Although Ipswich have stuttered overall, their home form has been very impressive in the final weeks of the season as they’re unbeaten in their last seven on home turf.
Visitors Norwich City will make the short trip to Ipswich in confident mood following last weekend’s 4-2 home win over Fulham, along with the fact that they’ve won the last four encounters against today’s derby rivals.
Norwich finished the season in strong fashion as they slipped up just once in their last eleven matches in the Championship (a 1-0 defeat at home to fellow play-off rivals Middlesbrough), but The Canaries were also on-song away from home throughout the campaign as they racked up the most away wins, along with Bournemouth and Watford (13 in total).
Norwich are also unbeaten in their last eleven on their travels as well, and have been scoring goals on a regular basis which saw them finish just three points shy of an automatic promotion spot just behind Watford.
To sum up, the importance of this match is raised to a new level but both teams have the ability to score; Ipswich possess Murphy and McGoldrick, while Norwich possess the likes of Jerome, Grabban and Hooper. I’ll back both teams to find the net in this lively encounter, could be a 2-1 win for Norwich perhaps.
Pick: Both teams to score – Yes @ 1.91 Coral
