Town Target Six in a Row v. Bristol City

Second-placed Town visit Bristol City at Portman Road on Tuesday evening, hoping to win six games in a row in the second division for the first time since the 1991/92 season when they won the title.

Between January and March 1992, John Lyall’s Blues went on a six-game winning streak, bringing them from sixth to level on points with leaders Blackburn, whom they eventually surpassed to win the trophy and a spot in the inaugural Premier League.

That run began with a 1-0 home win against Bristol Rovers, but the current Blues face the other Bristol team in Suffolk on Tuesday as they aim to make it six out of six, a run that has already propelled them from fourth to second place.

Bristol City are presently 13th in the Championship table, nine places but just six points from relegation.

This season, they’ve won five, drawn five, and lost seven away games, including their most recent, a 2-1 loss at Sheffield Wednesday ten days ago.

However, a fortnight before that, they defeated Middlesbrough 2-1 and tied 1-1 with Premier League Nottingham Forest at the City Ground in the FA Cup before losing 5-3 in a spot shootout.

That tie was set up by a 1-0 replay triumph over another top level side, West Ham United, at Ashton Gate after a 1-1 draw in East London.

Perhaps their most impressive league away performance since Liam Manning took charge in November was a 4-1 victory over Watford.

Bristol City has scored the sixth fewest goals in the division this season (39), while conceding the fifth fewest (40).

Away, they have scored 18 goals in 17 games, with only six teams scoring fewer, while their 20 goals conceded rank sixth in the Championship.

“It’s clear to see, especially with their FA Cup performances and Southampton and Middlesbrough, what a threat they can be,” Blues manager Kieran McKenna That tie was set up by a 1-0 replay win over another high level.

“They excel against teams that dominate the ball, such as Southampton, or against teams like West Ham or Nottingham Forest, who did well in the cup against them when they were not favourites. They’re really dangerous in that game state. We know from the outside perspective, despite the recent history of the two clubs, that this will be the case on Tuesday, but I’d like to think the experience in the roo

Manning, the Robins’ manager, has a similar profile to McKenna and is an Ipswich Town alumnus, having cut his teeth in coaching with the Blues academy after previously playing as a midfielder at the club’s Playford Road development setup but not getting to the senior level.

“I know Liam pretty well now, faced him with the MK Dons,” McKenna said in a statement. “He’s a fantastic person and coach, and I’m sure he’ll want to bring his team here to make an impression on a Tuesday night.

“But it’s up to us to guard against that and go and try and deliver a good performance of our own.”

McKenna said he didn’t know if Wes Burns (calf), Nathan Broadhead (thigh), or Massimo Luongo (illness) would be available for the game.

“We honestly don’t know,” he replied. “Massimo has a viral infection, so we’ll see how he does over the next few days.

“Wes and Nathan have two muscle injuries. I have not been updated in the last 48 hours, so we’ll see how things are on Monday.

“Fortunately, neither appeared to have extremely major difficulties, so they should be available in the next few games. Whether Tuesday night is too soon or not, we’ll have to decide.”

The game is the second of three in eight days, with extensive travel to Home Park last weekend and Cardiff on Saturday, and McKenna accepts that injuries and illness limit his ability to alter his team to some extent.

“In some ways,” he remarked. “But we still had 18 senior outfielders in the squad today and Sone [Aluko] travelling with the group as well, so we’ve still got plenty of players there who were training well, competing well and we’ll try and make the best decisions for Tuesday.”

Vaclav Hladky will start in goal, while Luke Woolfenden and Cameron Burgess are highly expected to remain as centre-backs.

Leif Davis will play left back, but McKenna may make a change on the right, since Axel Tuanzebe has played back-to-back Championship games for the first time and may be rested on Tuesday. If that’s the case, Harry Clarke will rejoin the XI.

Assuming Luongo misses out again, skipper Sam Morsy will be joined by either Lewis Travis or Jack Taylor, with the latter’s inclusion from the start possibly depending on how fit he is after his quad injury.

Conor Chaplin appears to be in the middle of the three forward of the pivot, with Omari Hutchinson on the right. If Burns is fit, the Welshman is likely to be on the bench, just like his left-sided Broadhead, his compatriot

Marcus Harness, who was lauded by McKenna after Saturday’s encounter for his performance as a substitute, might start on the left side, with Jeremy Sarmiento moving to the bench. Kieffer Moore will be in front.

The Blues will be hoping for positive results elsewhere, as Leeds and Leicester also lost on Saturday.

The Whites, third, two points behind the Blues, face struggling Stoke, while the Foxes, now only three points ahead of Town, travel to Sunderland, who are tenth. Southampton, five points behind the Blues, host eighth-placed Preston North End.

The Robins will be without on-loan Burnley forward Scott Twine, who is currently recovering from a quad injury, and veteran midfielder Matty James, who has an achilles condition that requires injections.

Full-back George Tanner will also be unavailable against the Blues after spraining his MCL against QPR.

Better news for the visitors: Kal Naismith, who had a calf injury in training last week, should play against the Blues in some form.

Historically, Town has had the advantage, winning 30 (28 league games), losing 23 (23) and drawing 14 (14).

Broadhead’s first-half goal at Ashton Gate in October gave second-placed Town a 1-0 victory against Bristol City, their fifth away win in six Championship games this season.

Broadhead scored the only goal from George Hirst’s lay-off in the 16th minute as the Blues won at Ashton Gate for the first time since the season opener in 2011/12.

Freddie Sears scored twice in the last Portman Road meeting in November 2018, but Bristol City rallied twice to defeat the Blues 3-2, extending bottom-of-the-table Town’s all-time home winless streak to 12 games.

Sears put the Blues ahead in the 32nd minute, but Bartosz Bialkowski’s own goal leveled the scores 10 minutes later.

Sears’ second of the evening restored the advantage on 58, but Jamie Paterson equalised a minute later before substitute Famara Diedhiou won it for the visitors, who halted a four-game losing streak.

Burns came through Bristol City’s junior system and went on to make six starts and 48 substitute appearances, scoring five times.

Following the Gamechanger 20 Ltd takeover, several Town off-field employees relocated to Portman Road, including CEO Mark Ashton, COO Luke Werhun, and director of performance Andy Rolls.

Bristol City manager Manning was an academy player and coach for the Blues, while his deputy Chris Hogg was a player at Portman Road who never made a senior appearance before returning to Playford Road to teach the U18s and U23s.

James Krause, the Robins’ first-team analyst, was a full-back on the Town U18s team that won the FA Youth Cup in 2005.

Nahki Wells, City’s striker, spent time on trial at Portman Road as a teenager. He performed well enough to be asked to stay longer, but the homesick teenager chose to return to Bermuda and the Dandy Town Hornets before returning to English football with Carlisle, Bradford, Huddersfield, Burnley, QPR, and, beginning in January 2020, the Robins.

The Blues considered midfielder Jason Knight as an option to Jack Taylor last summer, while protracted negotiations with Peterborough persisted, with the Irish international eventually going from Derby to Ashton Gate later that summer.

Tuesday’s referee is David Webb of Lancashire, who has 102 yellow cards and one red in 25 games this season.

Webb’s most recent Town match was a 0-0 draw at home to QPR between Christmas and New Year’s, during which he yellow-carded Woolfenden, Chaplin, Harness, and two guests.

He also officiated the 4-2 win over Preston North End at Portman Road in October, booking only four of the visitors.

His previous visit to Suffolk came in November 2018, during a 3-2 home defeat to Bristol City, during which he cautioned Jordan Spence, Jordan Roberts, Kayden Jackson, and one visiting player.

Prior to that, he was in the middle of a 1-0 defeat at Rotherham in August of the same year, in which he booked only two Millers and denied the Blues what appeared to be a penalty when Roberts was felled in the area late on as he attempted to finish a cross from Kieffer Moore, who was in his first spell with the club.

Webb was also in charge of the previous February’s 0-0 home tie with Burton Albion, during which he issued only one caution to Brewers.

Prior to that, he took control of the 1-1 draw at Leeds in January 2014, in which he yellow-carded just Cole Skuse and awarded the home side a penalty, which Ross McCormack converted after Luke Chambers Future Blues misfit Cameron Stewart was fouled.

He also officiated the 1-1 draw at Bolton in October 2013, where he booked one player from each team.

More memorable was his earlier encounter against the Blues, a 1-0 loss at Nottingham Forest in March of that year, in which he red-carded two Town players, Lee Martin and Richard Stearman, and issued five yellow cards to Tricky Trees.

Prior to then, Webb had only appeared in two Town games: the 1-0 success over Derby at Portman Road in December 2011 (when he booked no Blues and two Rams) and the 2-0 triumph against Scunthorpe at home in March of the same year, when he yellow-carded Martin, Gareth McAuley, Grant Leadbitter, and one visiting player.

Squad from: Hladky, Walton, Clarke, Davis, Humphreys, Tuanzebe, Woolfenden, Edmundson, Burgess, Morsy (c) Travis, Luongo, Taylor, Ball, Chaplin, Harness, Jackson, Aluko, Hutchinson, Sarmiento, Moore, Al-Hamadi, Burns, and Broadhead.