Bristol City vs Wolverhampton Wanderers

A place in the FA Cup fourth round is up for grabs as Bristol City and Wolverhampton Wanderers go head-to-head at Ashton Gate.

Bristol City’s rich vein of form since a 2-0 defeat at West Brom on the stroke of Boxing Day has seen them establish themselves as genuine top-six contenders in the Championship. Indeed, a narrow 1-0 home triumph against Derby County last weekend stretched Bristol’s unbeaten league run to four matches (W3, D1), moving them within a three-point distance of sixth-placed WBA. Each win in that sequence came ‘to nil,’ suggesting an opening goal could determine the winner on Saturday. Adding to this sentiment, five of the Robins’ six home matches (won/lost) since the start of November have seen the winning side keep a clean sheet (W4, D1, L2). Worryingly for manager Liam Manning, his men failed to score more than once in four of those six fixtures.

In the meantime, Wolverhampton’s mini-revival under new manager Vitor Pereira ended abruptly against Premier League surprise package Nottingham Forest earlier this week (0-3). Pereira inspired Wolves to back-to-back victories against Leicester City (3-0) and Manchester United (2-0) in his first two games in charge. However, he’s now winless in his last two (D1, L1), both of which saw the Wanderers concede at least twice! That’s also been the case in three of Wolves’ four competitive away outings since the start of December (W1, D1, L2), highlighting their fragile defense as this team’s weakest link. In search of good omens, Wolves squeaked past Bristol 1-0 in their last FA Cup encounter in 2019.