Sheffield United will square off against Bristol City on Easter Monday holding a two-point advantage in the final Championship playoff position.
Despite 12 places separating the clubs in the standings, Bristol City find themselves on any equally inconsistent run of form, putting them in 18th spot.
Match preview
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Ahead of facing Reading on Good Friday, everything appeared set up for Sheffield United to strengthen their hold of a playoff spot against a team fourth from bottom.
However, the unpredictability of the Championship once again came to the fore, the Blades' 12-match unbeaten streak at home coming to an end with a 2-1 defeat.
A lack of attacking options is hindering Paul Heckingbottom at this stage of the campaign, but that should not be used as an excuse for a run of just three wins from 10 matches.
While Sheffield United still occupy sixth spot, Middlesbrough will overtake them should they prevail in their game in hand, and it highlights the importance of gaining a result from their upcoming fixture.
Oli McBurnie has been required to feature on a regular basis in recent weeks, but the Scot remains without a goal in the Championship this season, failing to net in 1013 minutes of football.
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As for Bristol City, Nigel Pearson and his squad are probably keen for the campaign to end as soon as possible after spending much of it with little to play for in the bottom half of the table.
That said, despite 20 of their 42 Championship games ending in defeat during 2021-22, the Robins now and again produce a standout victory out of the blue, and that was the case at Stoke City on Friday.
Bristol City had been on their way to their first goalless draw in the second tier since September 11 until Jay Dasilva scored the only goal of the game at the bet365 Stadium with six minutes left.
With eight points now coming from six matches, it puts more of a positive spin on Bristol City's form in the short term, but there is no getting away from the fact that they need to end on a high if Pearson is going to be retained in the dugout.
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Team News
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On the back of a good win in the Potteries, Pearson is unlikely to go out of his way to make changes to his Bristol City XI.
However, Han-Noah Massengo may replace Joe Williams in midfield with Pearson having previously erred on the side of caution with the latter's hamstring issues.
Heckingbottom will almost certainly freshen up his Sheffield United starting lineup with Sander Berge expected to feature in midfield.
Iliman Ndiaye should replace Ben Osborn behind either McBurnie or Daniel Jebbison, while Chris Basham and Jack Robinson will hope to return in defence.
Billy Sharp will not come back into contention until April 23 at the earliest as he continues to recover from a hamstring injury.
Bristol City possible starting lineup:
Bentley; Cundy, Klose, Atkinson; Scott, Weimann, James, Massengo, Dasilva; Martin, Semenyo
Sheffield United possible starting lineup:
Foderingham; Basham, Egan, Davies; Baldock, Norwood, Berge, Stevens; Gibbs-White, Ndiaye; McBurnie
We say: Bristol City 1-2 Sheffield United
Struggling for numbers in attack has really hurt Sheffield United and Bristol City will feel that they can capitalise at Ashton Gate. However, with the Robins having failed to record successive wins for over a year, we can only back the Blades to come up trumps in a hard-fought contest.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Sheffield United win with a probability of 46.76%. A win for Bristol City had a probability of 27.95% and a draw had a probability of 25.3%.
The most likely scoreline for a Sheffield United win was 0-1 with a probability of 10.58%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-2 (9.29%) and 0-2 (8.18%). The likeliest Bristol City win was 1-0 (7.78%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (12.02%). The actual scoreline of 1-1 was predicted with a 12% likelihood.
