Swansea City vs Ipswich Town: Championship match preview

Town will aim to finish the week with seven points from a possible nine (Image: Pagepix)

Starting a run

The promotion race is intense, and Ipswich have been the team to slip up in recent weeks. They paid the price too, slipping from second to fourth.

Their win at Millwall was the perfect response. They showed a big improvement in terms of the performance and the way they managed the game, helping them to secure just their second league win since December 12th.

Leeds United and Leicester City also won in midweek, but Southampton slipped up, losing 3-1 at Bristol City. The twists and turns are far from over.

Town are the underdogs in this promotion fight, but they’re not out of it. Starting with Swansea City in 17th, they’ve got a lengthy run of games against teams in the bottom half of the table.

Not only can they secure back-to-back league wins for the first time since mid-December, but they can also go on a run and pile pressure on the teams above them. It’s much easier to be the hunters than the hunted.

Almost 300 miles separates Portman Road and the Swansea.com Stadium (Image: PA)

A short turnaround

Playing on a Wednesday night is never ideal, but it’s even harder when you’ve got to play on the other side of the country less than 72 hours later.

Ipswich’s squad left The Den late on Wednesday night to return to Suffolk. From there, they will have trained on Thursday and probably Friday morning before heading to South Wales in the evening. It leaves little time to analyse Swansea and put certain elements into practice on the training pitch. It doesn't seem overly fair that their opponents played a day earlier and don't have to travel.

Of course, football has changed over time. With air travel becoming common for long-distance journeys, gone are the days of top-level clubs spending hours on a coach before games. It makes things easier, but it doesn’t remove the issues that come with such a short turnaround.

The Blues will face another midweek game next Tuesday as they host Rotherham United, with trips to Plymouth Argyle, Cardiff City and Blackburn Rovers on the horizon. While this run looks easier on paper, other factors will certainly play a part.

The Swans lost 4-0 at home to Leeds United in their last match (Image: PA)

Swans in a rut

Swansea have found this season to be much harder than they expected.

They were tipped as outsiders for the play-offs following the appointment of Michael Duff, who had success with Cheltenham Town and Barnsley in League Two and League One respectively. It never really worked out.

Fans turned on him quite quickly and he was eventually sacked in December 2023, when he was replaced by Notts County boss Luke Williams.

At that point, it became clear that the season was a write-off. Williams was a shrewd appointment, but this is his first step into Championship management. It was clear that it would take time for him to have an impact, but with the club sitting comfortably above the relegation zone, that’s exactly what he’s been afforded.

In the league, the Swans have won one, drawn one and lost four games under him. Sides with attacking strength, like Leicester and Leeds, have picked them apart at will. Ipswich will be hoping to do the same.

Kieffer Moore may get a hostile reception from the Swansea fans (Image: Pagepix)

Town's Welsh boys

Between them, Kieffer Moore, Nathan Broadhead and Wes Burns have 54 caps for the Wales national team. They’ve played countless international games at the Cardiff City Stadium, but they’ll be heading 43 miles down the road today to visit Swansea. 

It feels like a crossover episode on a TV show, and Swans fans might not be too sure how to react. They’ll have cheered all three players during crucial games at various tournaments, but now they’re the enemy. One in particular arrives with a target on his back.

Broadhead is from North Wales, born in Bangor and developed by Wrexham. Burns, however, spent time at Cardiff’s academy, but he was released as a youngster in heartbreaking fashion before joining Bristol City. He's a boyhood fan and his family still go to watch them.

Moore, on the other hand, may be in for a hostile reception. The striker played 66 times for Cardiff, scoring 25 goals in all competitions. He only ever beat Swansea once, starting in a 1-0 away win in March 2021. He never scored against them during his time with the Bluebirds, although he made up for it with a brace in SA1 while playing for AFC Bournemouth in April 2022.

As someone who clearly holds Cardiff close to his heart, he’ll be motivated to get on the scoresheet today.

Ali Al-Hamadi is waiting patiently for his first Championship start (Image: PA)

Any changes?

Everyone expected McKenna to shuffle the pack at Millwall, which he did, and it worked incredibly well. Now he’s got a dilemma when it comes to today’s game.

The aforementioned travel could be an issue, as could the general fatigue from the last few weeks. Whether he wants to make any tactical tweaks remains to be seen, but we’ve seen that a lot this season.

Omari Hutchinson’s performance in South London may be enough to keep Conor Chaplin out of the team, but what about Ali Al-Hamadi? 

The attacker can’t be far away from securing his first start, having looked promising off the bench before scoring his first goal against Millwall in midweek. As a former Swansea scholar, he’ll be desperate to show his former team what he can do.

Cameron Burgess was one of two changes at The Den, but his performance should see him remain in the team for today’s game, so it’s hard to see any major alterations. After all, you don’t change a winning formula.