Pick of the stats: Ipswich Town v Oxford United

Promotion-chasing Ipswich Town welcome relegation-battling Oxford United for a clash with permutations at both ends of the Championship table on New Year's Day (15:00 GMT kick-off).

The Tractor Boys moved within two points of the automatic promotion spots with an excellent 2-0 win at leaders Coventry City on Monday night.

Kieran McKenna's side have won four of their past six (D1 L1) and have only suffered one defeat at Portman Road so far this season (W7 D4).

The U's have won just one of their past six games (D1 L4) and are three points adrift of safety having played a game more than Portsmouth in 21st.

• Ipswich Town lost 2-1 to Oxford United in the reverse fixture back in November and could suffer a league double to the U's for the very first time.
• Oxford have only won two of their 12 away games against Ipswich in the EFL (D3 L7), winning 2-1 in October 1988 and 1-0 in February 2020.
• Ipswich have only won their opening game in one of the past 17 calendar years (D9 L7), beating Gillingham 4-0 in 2022.
• Oxford have won their opening league game in both of the past two calendar years, last doing so in three consecutive years between 2016 and 2018.
• Oxford's Mark Harris netted the opener in his side's 2-1 win against Ipswich earlier this season but only against Carlisle in 2023-24 and Norwich in 2024-25 has he scored home and away for the U's in a league campaign.