Ipswich Town host Cardiff City at Portman Road this Saturday. After being knocked down from the automatic promotion spots, Ipswich will be looking to get back on track with a win. Cardiff have had an underwhelming start to the season, meaning three points could be even more important.
Ipswich currently sit sixth in the Championship with three wins and one loss in four games so far, leaving The Tractor Boys on nine points. Ipswich did have an unbeaten start to the season, but their most recent loss bumped them down four places.
The Tractor Boys opened their season away at Sunderland. Nathan Broadhead and George Hirst both scored as Sunderland went down to ten men. Dan Neil did score late on for The Black Cats but it was enough to stop Ipswich winning 2 - 1. Next was a visit from Stoke where Luke Woolfenden and Kayden Jackson scored for The Tractor Boys, giving them a 2 - 0 win and all three points. Conor Chaplin scored the only goal in the 1 - 0 win over QPR before the visit from Leeds. A Joe Rodon own goal and goals from Broadhead and Chaplin wasn’t enough as Leeds beat Ipswich 4 - 3 to hand them their first defeat of the season.
Ipswich faced League One Reading in the Second Round of the League Cup. Cameron Humphreys and Freddie Ladapo both scored in the 2 - 2 and due to three misses from Reading, Ipswich win 3 - 1 on penalties.
Cardiff are 11 places below their next opponents in 17th with just four points from a possible 12. In four games The Blue Birds have one win, one draw and two losses and a negative goal difference, having already conceded seven goals.
The Blue Birds started their Championship campaign away to Leeds. Josh Bowler and Ike Ugbo gave Cardiff the 2 - 0 lead but Liam Cooper and Crysencio Summerville levelled the game at 2 - 2. The first home game ended in defeat as QPR took a 2 - 1 win despite another Ugbo goal. Cardiff then suffered another 2 - 1 loss this time to Leicester. But finally, they got their win against Sheffield Wednesday with Ugbo and a Ryan Wintle penalty in the 98th minute giving them the 2 - 1 win.
Cardiff met Birmingham in the League Cup on Tuesday. The Blue Birds beat ten man Birmingham 3 - 1 with Rubin Colwill, Wintle and Kio Etete all scoring.
Ipswich and Cardiff have met 51 times in their histories, the first coming back in 1938. The Tractor Boys have won on 21 occasions whereas The Blue Birds have won 16 times, with the remaining 14 games ending in a share of the points.
In the last five games there have been four Cardiff wins and one draw. However, the most recent meeting came back in 2018 and based on current form the win is more likely to go Ipswich’s way.