The majority of the Sky Bet Championship weekend fixtures take place on Saturday afternoon and with two of the top three going into the match day having already played on Friday night, it is the turn of the chasing pack to show their hand.
Usually we would have a TV game to enjoy on a Saturday but with the opening match of the weekend having taken place on Friday night and another TV offering on Sunday we don’t have anything for Saturday. All the updates for these matches will be in the usual places.
Saturday’s fixtures are as follows: (All 3pm)
Birmingham City v Ipswich Town
Bristol City v Sheffield Wednesday
Huddersfield Town v Watford
Millwall v Southampton
Plymouth Argyle v Middlesbrough
Preston North End v Coventry City
Rotherham United v Queens Park Rangers
Stoke City v Cardiff City
Swansea City v Sunderland
West Bromwich Albion v Hull City
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Big Matches
Two of the top three showed their hand on Friday night and on Saturday second placed Ipswich Town will show what they have got to offer when they make the trip to Birmingham City where Wayne Rooney is already under some pressure on deliver a win after three losses to begin his reign. Southampton are the other team who are said to be in the promotion shake up despite being 15 points off the leaders heading into the weekend. They head to manager-less Millwall who will be looking to snap a four match winless run.
Best of the Rest
At the other end of the table there is a big match at the New York Stadium where third bottom host second bottom when Rotherham United meet QPR who begin life under Marti Cifuentes. Bottom of the table Sheffield Wednesday picked up their first win of the season last week and will be looking to double their tally when they make quite a lengthy trip to Ashton Gate to take on Bristol City. West Brom and Cardiff City begin the weekend in the top six and they host Hull City and head to Stoke City respectively. Early pacesetters Preston North End and play-off finalists from last season Coventry City meet at Deepdale with both looking to get their season back on track.
Betting
Ipswich Town have only dropped points in two matches this season. Only Leeds United have beaten them this term and that suddenly looks like a much better result after the Friday night game. The only other team to take anything from them were Huddersfield Town in what was the first home game for the Terriers under a new boss so probably not the best time to go there. This Ipswich side play with freedom, verve and are very good.
That is where Birmingham City will hope to get to under Wayne Rooney. There has been a lot of hoohah about their start under the former England international but they had only won two of their last seven games under John Eustace. I said when Rooney arrived that it will take a month or so for him to install his philosophy on these Birmingham players and that is exactly how it is proving. There are no real signs that they are there yet and they look like they could be in for a tough afternoon against an Ipswich side who are really good and really cohesive. I think Ipswich can keep Rooney searching for his first point as Blues boss here.
Tips
Back Ipswich Town to beat Birmingham City for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with Coral
