Preview: Millwall vs. Ipswich Town – prediction, team news, lineups
Aiming to stay in the race for a top-two spot in the division, stuttering Ipswich Town will travel to The Den on Wednesday night in the Championship to face off against Millwall.
The Lions were defeated narrowly at playoff hopefuls Coventry City on Sunday afternoon, while the Tractor Boys shared the spoils with West Bromwich Albion at Portman Road a day earlier.
Making his first Championship start since Millwall decided to sack Gary Rowett and appoint Joe Edwards, 18-year-old Romain Esse bagged his second goal of the term to put the visiting Lions ahead at the Coventry Building Society Arena on Sunday, but they once again dropped points from a winning position.
The Sky Blues turned the screw in the second period after Millwall had chances to double their advantage, with summer arrival Haji Wright bagging a brilliant brace, meaning that the Lions have now lost four of their last five games in the second tier, collecting just the single point during that spell.
Three-straight victories at the tail end of the festive period suggested that Edwards’s side could begin a steady ascent towards the top-six conversation, but the Lions are now sat in 18th position following a worrying run of form, only four points above 22nd-placed Queens Park Rangers.
With the likes of Tom Bradshaw and flying Dutchman Zian Flemming failing to hit the goalscoring heights of last season under Rowett, Millwall dipped into the January market for attackers, recruiting Adam Mayor and Michael Obafemi from League Two Morecambe and Premier League Burnley respectively.
During the 2022-23 season, the Lions made The Den a fortress as they charged for the playoffs, losing just six of their 23 Championship matches at their South London home, but this time around Edwards’s crop have already lost seven games at the venue, winning only four out of 15.
Ipswich have now won just one of their last nine Championship matches following a 2-2 draw with Carlos Corberan‘s West Brom in East Anglia on Saturday afternoon, and it could have been a lot worse for the top-two chasers as they headed into the final moments of the contest behind.
The Baggies were twice ahead in the fixture courtesy of efforts either side of the half-time whistle from Tom Fellows and John Swift, however the Tractor Boys flexed their powers of recovery on the visitors, equalising in the 46th and 93rd minute through Nathan Broadhead and Omari Hutchinson respectively.
A late strike from the Chelsea loanee prevented Ipswich from suffering three-straight defeats across all competitions for the first time since August 2021, when Paul Cook‘s Tractor Boys were bested by Newport County, Burton Albion and Cheltenham Town in the space of eight days.
Times have certainly changed for the East Anglians who sit fourth in the Championship standings, behind only the recently-relegated trio of Leicester City, Southampton and Leeds United, with Kieran McKenna‘s men slipping to four points off the top two due to their poor form of late.
The Tractor Boys have failed to win any of their last four second-tier away matches, with the Premier League chasers coming out on the losing side of a five-goal thriller at Deepdale on February 3, when Kieffer Moore‘s brace on his debut was not enough to earn a result over Preston North End.
