Ipswich Town slumped to their fourth defeat on the trot in the Championship on Sunday afternoon when they were soundly beaten by local rivals Norwich City at Carrow Road, which has left the Tractor Boys cast adrift at the bottom of the second tier.
Ipswich are now five points behind second from bottom club, Bolton Wanderers and nine points adrift of safety as they return to Portman Road for this important clash against Derby County.
Confidence must be fragile at best though for Paul Lambert’s side who have lost their last four matches on the trot to Blackburn Rovers, Aston Villa, Sheffield Wednesday and the aforementioned, Norwich City.
Ipswich have managed just two league wins on home soil this season which were against Wigan Athletic and Rotherham United who are both situated in the lower reaches of the Championship.
However, despite those wins, the losses have never been very far away either and the East Anglian outfit have lost at home to Millwall and Sheffield Wednesday in recent weeks at Portman Road.
Derby County dropped out of the play-off pack recently when they could only muster a point in a 0-0 draw away at Preston North End, and although they bounced back with a 2-0 home win over Hull City on the weekend, Frank Lampard’s side now sit on the fringes of the top six.
The form of Middlesbrough and in particular, Bristol City, has just edged Derby County out of the play-off places so The Rams will be desperate to grab all three points against a beleaguered Ipswich Town on Wednesday night and hope other results go their way.
Derby have lost just once in their last six matches which was a 2-0 loss away at Leeds United but Lampard knows there’s little room for error for the visitors in this encounter and he’ll be hoping his side can produce more consistent displays away from home from now until the end of the campaign.
Although The Rams recorded a fantastic 4-3 win away at Championship leaders, Norwich City at the end of December, the visitors have failed to score in their last two away matches which ended up in defeat at Leeds and a draw at Preston.
This is therefore a big game for both teams, but Derby’s quality in midfield should create more goalscoring opportunities than Ipswich Town and the visitors should just about edge the points here.