Ipswich's Away Day Blues Could Derail Promotion Dreams

Sometimes a point feels like a victory, and sometimes it feels like the universe having a quiet chuckle at your expense. For Ipswich Town, Sunday's 2-2 draw with Middlesbrough at Portman Road probably falls somewhere in between – useful enough to nudge them into second place, but hardly the statement result you'd want before embarking on what can only be described as a scheduling nightmare.

The Tractor Boys have managed to wriggle back into the Championship's second automatic promotion spot, albeit by the narrowest of margins. They sit level on points with Millwall but ahead on goal difference, while Southampton lurk just one point behind with presumably less generous calculators. It's the kind of table positioning that makes grown men refresh BBC Sport every thirty seconds.

What makes this all rather more interesting – and by interesting, we mean potentially catastrophic for Ipswich – is their upcoming fixture list. Three away games in six days sounds like something dreamed up by a particularly vindictive fixture computer. Wednesday sees them travel to Charlton, followed by West Brom on Saturday, before the small matter of visiting Southampton next Tuesday. That final fixture carries the delicious possibility of being a straight shootout for promotion, assuming Ipswich haven't already combusted by then.

Here's where things get properly spicy: Ipswich have managed just eight wins from their twenty away games this season. For a team with promotion aspirations, that's not so much a concern as it is a flashing neon warning sign visible from space. Their home form at Portman Road has clearly been doing the heavy lifting, but you can't exactly invite Southampton round for a cup of tea and a decisive three points.

Both managers reckon the next ten days will define who claims that precious second automatic promotion place, which is the kind of obvious statement that somehow becomes profound when spoken by men in tracksuits. The mathematics are beautifully simple: whoever blinks first probably gets to enjoy the lottery of the play-offs instead.

The Championship promotion race has reached that delicious stage where every result sends ripples through the table, where goal difference becomes more scrutinised than VAR decisions, and where fixture lists are analysed with the intensity usually reserved for military campaigns. Ipswich have manoeuvred themselves into pole position, but their away day record suggests the next week might separate the promotion contenders from the nearly-men.

With Southampton breathing down their necks and that direct confrontation looming, Ipswich's promotion dreams may well depend on finally solving their travel sickness. No pressure, then.