Norwich City vs. Sheffield United
Tuesday, 28th December 2010
@ Carrow Road; 3:00pm
The trip to Norwich City is sandwiched between fixtures Hull City (at Bramall Lane) on Boxing Day and a New Year’s Day clash with Burnley (at Turf Moor) were hopefully the Blades will have collected enough points to drift them away from the bottom three.
However possible rain and snow showers could force this fixture to be postponed and fans are warned to take note of traffic updates as roads may be hazarders.
United go into this Championship tie without a number of key players; Captain Chris Morgan (knee) has been sidelined for the remainder of the season through injury, whilst; Ryan France (back) and Darius Henderson (hamstring) are also unavailable.
Keeper Richard Wright made (thigh) is also out of action following his injury during the 1-0 defeat against Barnsley on 11th December at Oakwell.
They are however boosted by the return of striker Richard Cresswell from suspension; following his straight red card at Bristol City (0-3) the former Owls forward was absent from the fixtures against; Barnsley, Swansea City and Hull City.
Expected Eleven: Simonsen, Calvé, Bartley, Nosworthy, Taylor, Yeates, Montgomery, Britton, Reid, Bogdanovic, Evans.
Norwich City have stormed up the Champioinship table since winning the League One crown last season; currently (at the time of writing) the Canaries lay fifth in the table and are only just two points behind second placed Leeds United.
They faced Crystal Palace (at Selhurst Park) on Boxing Day were they would have surely been bookie’s favourites to travel home with three points, but football is a funny old game and maybe the game didn’t end up like that.
The Canaries are expected to be without Adam Drury (calf), Zat Whitbread (ankle), Andrew Surman (knee), Matt Gill (calf) and Stephen Hughes (ankle) who are all sidelined through injury.
However, they are boosted by the return of Steven Smith (hip) and he was included in there 2-1 victory at Coventry City little over a week ago.
Expected Eleven: Ruddy, R. Martin, Ward, Nelson, Lappin, Lansbury, Smith, Fox, Jackson, C. Martin, Holt.
Please note that due to the busy Christmas period we was forced to write this match preview prior to our game with Hull City; therefore some information may be inaccurate.