Birmingham City v Ipswich Town
Championship | St Andrew's Stadium
Saturday, 4 November 2023 @ 3.00pm
Ipswich Town are strong favourites to take all three points despite Birmingham City's home advantage in Saturday's match at St Andrew's.
Betting companies are offering odds of 1.97 on Ipswich sealing the win, with the visitors sitting second in the Championship table.
Birmingham, who are 15th in the league and 16 points behind Ipswich Town, are priced at 3.35 to win. A draw is set at 3.5.
With 29 goals in 13 games so far this season, Ipswich are the league's joint-highest scorers with 2.2 goals per game. And they are conceding fewer than average, letting in 15 goals at a rate of 1.2 per game.
Birmingham, meanwhile, are below average scorers, with 1.1 goals per game, compared to a league average of 1.4. They have conceded 1.2 goals per game.
In Václav Hladký, Town can rely on one of the league's safest pair of hands. He has kept six clean sheets in his 13 appearances this season, and only one other 'keeper – West Bromwich Albion's Alex Palmer – has been able to prevent the opposition scoring on more occasions in the Championship.
In City's net, John Ruddy has three clean sheets in 14 games.
Birmingham City are in disappointing form in the Championship, with two wins and four losses from their last six games.
With five wins and a draw over that period, Ipswich Town's form is much better – they have taken 16 points from 18, compared to the hosts' six.
In the last 10 years, Birmingham and Ipswich have played each other on 11 occasions. They won three each, and they drew five times.
On average, Birmingham City scored 1.4 goals and Ipswich Town 1.3 in those matches.
Their last meeting was on April 13 2019, when they played out a 1-1 draw.
Birmingham's last match was on October 28, a 3-1 loss against Southampton, with Jay Stansfield getting the goal for Birmingham City.
Ipswich beat Plymouth Argyle 3-2 last time out, also on October 28, with Bali Mumba (own goal), George Hirst and Marcus Harness on the scoresheet.