Football – England – Championship
Tuesday 1st January 2012 – Kickoff: 1500hrs
A resurgent Ipswich Town take on Gus Poyet’s Brighton in their opening fixture of 2013 at Portman Road on New Years Day with the hosts looking to extend their unbeaten home sequence to six matches.
New manager Mick McCarthy has turned things around for the Tractor Boys as his charges have only lost once in their last eight Championship matches which is in stark contrast to the eleven matches without a win that Ipswich Town endured through August to October this season. Ipswich remain in the lower half of the division but the green shoots of recovery are starting to blossom and they will go into this match with increased optimism on the back of a 2-0 away win at Wolves on Saturday.
Recent victories over Nottingham Forest 3-1, Bolton 2-1 away, a 3-0 home win over Millwall, 2-1 at Charlton Athletic and the Wolves result sets them up nicely to continue their run on home turf against a Brighton side who have won just once in their last seven matches away.
Ipswich’s home record stands at 3-4-5 16/18 which isn’t particularly impressive at first glance but remember they are unbeaten in their last five (3 wins 2 draws) which puts their current home form into perspective – this has been turned around from ten matches without a win at home which includes 7 defeats!
As mentioned before, Brighton’s away form has not been great recently having won just once in their last seven away matches and in addition it’s now five matches (home & away) without a win with defeats against Crystal Palace and Watford and solitary points taken off Charlton, Nottingham Forest and Millwall.
At best, it looks like The Seagulls will have to settle for a play-off place but even that goal seems to be slipping from their grasp right now based on current form and they now face a difficult trip to East Anglia against an improving Ipswich outfit.
Brighton’s away form reads 4-4-3 14/14 which isn’t disastrous but consider this; just three clean sheets in their last seventeen away matches which isn’t great form when you’re ambitions are to gain a place in the top six of this Championship.
In summary, Ipswich Town have pulled their socks up and have solid form behind them (along with home advantage) while Brighton’s form has been indifferent and they haven’t travelled well in the last few weeks. I’ll take Ipswich with the round ball here to cover us for the draw but it’s still a good price if they win it. Could be a 1-0 win for The Tractor Boys.
Pick: Ipswich Town AH0 (Draw No Bet) @ 1.86 Pinnacle
