Sheffield Wed vs Bristol City prediction: ENGLAND: Championship betting tips on match 2024-02-23 15:00.
Sheffield Wednesday’s desperate fight to extend their return to the Championship took another step in the right direction when Danny Röhl’s side took the full three points away to fellow relegation contenders Millwall (2-0), moving three points closer to safety in the process. They would certainly be delighted to replicate the follow-up to their prior Championship away win (1-0 v Preston), which was a 3-1 triumph at home to Hull.
As one of the newly promoted clubs, Sheffield Wednesday were amongst the pre-season relegation favourites, but Röhl has done tremendously well to eat into the seven-point gap from safety he inherited from predecessor Xisco Muñoz. They have enjoyed a dramatic improvement at home during his tenure, winning five of their ten Championship games (D2, L3) under Röhl’s stewardship, albeit with four of those five victories coming against clubs ranked well beneath upcoming opponents Bristol City in the standings.
Bristol City have also been displaying some wildly inconsistent form in recent weeks, riding the highs of defeating promotion-chasing Southampton (3-1) and the lows of being shut out at home to lowly QPR (L 1-0) just a few days apart. Head coach Liam Manning was expecting their seventh game in 23 days to be difficult physically but was nonetheless bitterly disappointed about “most things” going terribly wrong against QPR.
Those two instances of over and underachievement epitomise just how difficult their season has been to predict, underlined by a league-low 33% of their Championship games this season being won by the favourites on the day (W11, D8, L14). One clear area for improvement is their record of just four opening goals on the road this league season, particularly as they were triumphant on all four occasions.
Players to watch: Iké Ugbo opened the scoring prior to half-time in each of Wednesday’s last two league wins, suggesting his rise could be synonymous with that of the team. Bristol centre-back Rob Dickie struck in their last league victory as well as in their 1-0 win in the reverse H2H.
Hot streak: The home side on the day did not lead at half-time in any of Bristol City’s last 11 league matches.