Deepdale Park will once again open its door to Preston North End this Saturday with the Lilywhites aiming to put together another run towards the playoffs and take points off the high-flying Ipswich Town.
Ipswich remain in second place but have seen their spot in the automatic promotion position come under serious threat in recent weeks. Indeed the club do still way clear of Preston by 20 points, but with just a one-point gap on Southampton in third and Leeds United in fourth, the Tractor Boys are not sitting as comfortably as they once were back in November.
The club do also remain above Sunderland by 16 points just outside of the playoffs, meaning it would be nothing short of disastrous if Ipswich were to not get into the fight for a Premier League spot in some capacity come May.
Ipswich have now put together 17 wins and with the fewest losses on the board with only three, they have only suffered losses to Leeds United and West Bromwich Albion this season. This does also see the club within only 10 points of Leicester City after drawing 1-1 with them at the King Power Stadium recently, as the Tractor Boys have a game in hand.
On the other hand to the decent recent away to the league leaders in the last Championship outing, Ipswich were stunned by sixth tier Maidstone United last time outing, which now means the Championship side became the first team since 1993 to lose to a team as low down as Maidstone in the fourth round.
Ipswich had 38 shots that day with 13 hitting the target, but a stunning display in the Maidstone goal from Lucas Covolan handed the non-league side a win with two goals from their two shots throughout the game. This home loss was also just the second defeat at Portman Road for Ipswich all season long.
Nevertheless, Kieran McKenna's side can now fully focus on the league and their pursuit at finishing in the top two this season in their magical attempt at back-to-back promotions and a spot back in the Premier League.
As for Preston, their story has not changed much from previous seasons, as they now sit down in 12th with a gap of five points on the playoffs and 12 losses coming in alongside 11 wins. Like always, their goalscoring record is once again very poor, with just 35 netted from 29 games - this is the fewest finishes inside the top 12 in the Championship this campaign.