Football – England – Championship
Saturday 31st January 2015 – Kickoff: 1500hrs
In a topsy-turvy division, Ipswich Town could jump into top position in the Championship with a win here this afternoon as they look to put their recent defeat at Brighton behind them.
It was a tricky fixture for Ipswich away at Brighton as The Seagulls have been re-invigorated by the arrival of manager Chris Hughton who replaced former boss Sami Hyppia a few weeks ago. Ipswich lost 3-2 but they now return to Portman Road where they’ll be confident of taking the points against out-of-sorts Wigan Athletic.
The Tractor Boys’ home form is also strong despite their recent defeat to promotion rivals Derby County, but with a record of 9-2-2 23/8, they look likely to bounce back here today. Strikers Murphy and McGoldrick should put the Wigan defence to the sword here.
Visitors Wigan Athletic have gone four matches without a league win and have lost three of these last four with defeats to Sheffield Wednesday, Birmingham City and Huddersfield Town, while they did hold Blackburn to a 1-1 draw at their DW Stadium.
But just one away win from their last six trips have resulted in Wigan occupying a bottom three place, in fact, second from bottom and eight points adrift of Rotherham United who pulled away from the relegation pack with a midweek win over Bolton Wanderers.
Wigan’s away record stands at a poor 2-2-9 12/22 with their last win coming at Elland Road against a struggling Leeds outfit, but The Latics have performed poorly against top half teams as they’ve lost six of their eight encounters on their travels against such opposition.
Ipswich will be glad to be back on home turf and I reckon we’ll see that reflected in todays scoreline here – a 2-0 win for the hosts.
Pick: Ipswich Town straight win @ 1.75 bet365
