Ipswich Town entertain Fleetwood Town at Portman Road tomorrow afternoon. MIKE BACON takes a look at the visitors from the north-west.
DON'T BE FOOLED
They may be sitting 20th in League One, seven places and four points behind the Blues, but don't be fooled by Fleetwood's position in the table.
They've already enjoyed some very tidy results this season, with victory at Rotherham, and draws on the road at Plymouth and MK Dons, while they also drew at home to Sunderland.
Their away form is as good as their home, but they have slipped slightly of late, losing their last two home games, to Charlton and Burton.
So, it's a mixed bag, but one that comes with plenty of warning signs for Town. Fleetwood are more than capable of upsetting the apple cart at Portman Road tomorrow afternoon.
WE TRAVEL WITH CONFIDENCE
Despite losing at home on Tuesday night to Burton, while Town were thrashing Portsmouth, Fleetwood boss Simon Grayson says his side travel to Suffolk in confidence.
Grayson told the Blackpool Gazette: “We are confident in our ability to play well against anyone. It’s a different type of game.
“Ipswich have some very talented players and had a good win at Portsmouth but we’ll prepare right.
“We trained yesterday morning and travelled today. Sometimes, when it’s three games in a week, you don’t need to train on the Friday, so we’ll do a recovery session in the pool and gym when we get down there.”
Grayson is yet to have a full complement of players available to him this season.
Brad Halliday and Darnell Johnson are both out for the rest of the campaign with injury.
Others, including former Blue, Joe Garner and Anthony Pilkington, joined the club later in the summer transfer window and so needed time to get up to speed, having missed out on pre-season work.
“We’ve picked up a couple of knocks from the other night, which is part and parcel of playing Saturday-Tuesday," Grayson added.
“But whoever we have available, we’ll pick a team that can go to Ipswich, put in a good performance and get a win.”
GARNER AND GARNER
Ipswich Town fans remember Joe Garner with fondness, even though he only had one season at the club.
The no-nonsense striker made a good impression during the 2017/18 season when he left Rangers to join the Blues.
He scored his first goal for Ipswich on his debut in a 1–0 win in August and netted 10 goals in 32 appearances during that season with the Blues, before leaving to join Wigan.
However, it's another Garner, Gerard, who is leading the score charts at Fleetwood so far this season - with five league goals to date.
HEAD TO HEAD
Fleetwood were only promoted to the Football League in the 2011/12 season, so meetings with many clubs are few and far between.
The same can be said about their clashes with Ipswich. There have been just four and it's two wins apiece, the last one on the final day of last season, Town winning 3-1, James Norwood, Gwion Edwards and Troy Parrott on the scoresheet for Town.
WHAT THE BOOKIES SAY
Ipswich are heavy favourites for this one. Blues fans could go for the classic 'console yourself' bet and put money on very generous Fleetwood odds for victory, happy in the knowledge that if it doesn't come up, Town could well have been victorious.
TOWN WIN: 4/6: FLEETWOOD WIN: 4/1: THE DRAW: 29/10
DID YOU KNOW?
Fisherman's Friend, the brand of strong menthol lozenges, is Fleetwood through and through. Formed in the town in 1865, Fisherman’s Friend has been a family business, now in its fifth generation in Fleetwood and today producing more than 5 billion lozenges per year.
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