Southampton and Ipswich Town prepare for automatic promotion showdown

McKenna’s men were the firm bookies’ favourites to win the title on the eve of the season in August.

Town were odds-on to go up, with Southampton the second-favourites, and the other relegated Premier League side, Leicester City, third in the betting… though the less said about that the better.

For the record, champions Coventry were sixth-favourites for promotion, behind Birmingham City and Sheffield United, and just ahead of Middlesbrough.

However, Ipswich took a while to get up to speed and left themselves too much to do in the title race in the back half of the campaign.

George Hirst salvaged a 1-1 draw at Birmingham from the penalty spot in the campaign’s curtain-raiser on 8 August, and Ipswich had to settle for the same score in their Portman Road opener against Southampton.

A 1-0 defeat at Preston and a 2-2 draw at home to Derby made it four games without a win to start the campaign, leaving Town 19th.

December changed everything. Town swept aside leaders Coventry at Portman Road on 6 December, and then beat Stoke City in their 21st game of the campaign four days later to jump into the top five, and have stayed there ever since.

Town’s season has had some glorious highlights, beating the Champions home and away by an aggregate score of 5-0 and doing the double over rivals Norwich City for the first time in 33 years, but has also had some real lows at key points of the season.

October’s 3-0 loss to Charlton Athletic remains their only home defeat of the campaign, while relegated Leicester took four points off Town this season. They also lost to Oxford United, another side bound for League One.

While Coventry were wobbling at the summit in the new year, giving the chasing pack a glimmer of hope, Town went down 3-1 at Sheffield United, needed a stoppage-time penalty to salvage a point at home to Preston North End and lost 5-3 at Wrexham.

Even during the run-in, with promotion in their own hands, Town went down 2-0 at struggling Portsmouth on 14 April to leave the door open for Pompey’s south-coast rivals to make this a very big night indeed.

One statistic that has favoured Ipswich this season is the number of penalties they have been awarded.

In all, they have now been awarded 10 spot kicks, four more than any other side in the Championship, having played a game fewer than 22 other clubs.

Coventry have been awarded five this season, Middlesbrough four, Saints three and Millwall just two.

Of the six goals that Ipswich have scored in their past five matches, three have come from the penalty spot, including a priceless winner from Jaden Philogene at Charlton last week.