Ipswich Town are now just six points clear of the Championship relegation places after Blackburn Rovers’ 1-0 win at Nottingham Forest this afternoon, ahead of their trip to Burton Albion tonight (7.45pm kick-off).
Defender Tommy Hoban scored the only goal of the game for third-bottom Rovers on 78 minutes to move Tony Mowbray’s side to within two points of Town’s opponents tonight.
A win at the Pirelli Stadium however, would see Town go nine points clear of the bottom three again with three games to play and a better goal difference, ahead of their Easter Monday home clash with Newcastle United.
Bristol City were the big movers of the day, Lee Johnson’s side moving to within two points and a place of Ipswich after a 2-1 home win over QPR.
A win from their very league first trip to the Staffordshire side would represent just Town’s second league double of the season, Mick McCarthy’s men having got the better of lowly Wigan twice.
To do that though, McCarthy’s men will have to address their poor away form, Town having won just once away from Portman Road in their last nine games.
As for the Brewers, in their first-ever season at this level, they have made a good fist of sticking around and have taken some notable scalps on home turf, namely those of Derby, Norwich and Sheffield Wednesday.
Nigel Clough’s men have lost just one of their last six at the Pirelli and since the New Year, have won five, drawn five and lost seven to stay afloat.
As a result, only four points separate the two teams and former Blues striker Luke Varney says there is plenty of confidence within the ranks at Burton.
“The results of late have been great as a whole of late, minus the Newcastle defeat where on another day we could have possibly got something from the game,” he said.
We are in good form and as a group we are looking forward to playing football matches which in the battle we are in is a big positive. We all know how important the games are that upcoming.”
He added: “We go into most of the games as underdogs and that’s the way we like it, the gaffer doesn’t put much pressure on us but as a group we put the pressure on ourselves to succeed and we are all confident we have enough to stay up.”
He added: “The results of late have been great, we are side that are hard for sides to beat.”
Today’s games at the bottom: Nottingham Forest 0 Blackburn 1, Bristol City 2 QPR 1; Rotherham 1 Birmingham 1; Burton (20th, 45 points) v Ipswich (17th, 49 points)
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