Blackburn Rovers will welcome Rotherham United to Ewood Park on Wednesday, with three points on offer for two sides who have shown inconsistency of late.
The hosts find themselves on a run of three games without a win and fell to a 2-1 defeat at home to Norwich City last weekend, while Rotherham broke their six-game winless run with a 2-0 victory over Bristol City.
Match preview
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Blackburn were undone by an in-form Norwich City side on the weekend, a result that compounded further woe on to Tony Mowbray, whose side cannot seem to grasp any consistency so far this season.
Mowbray can look to the injuries his side have suffered as an excuse but will know all too well how unforgiving this league can be, and with Christmas upon us, the fixture schedule will only get busier from hereon in.
The most recent meeting between these two sides came in the Championship in March 2019 when a brace from Nigeria international Semi Ajayi helped Rotherham to a 3-2 home victory.
However, Blackburn have won 17 of their last 20 home matches against Rotherham in all competitions.
Nine points separate the two sides with Blackburn occupying 12th spot on 25 points, while their opponents are eight places below in 20th.
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The Millers quickly bounced back from a 2-0 loss to Watford, to beat Bristol City 2-0 on the weekend, putting daylight in between them and the relegation zone.
Rotherham have lost 42 of their last 56 away Championship matches, including their last six in a row, and Paul Warne will be very aware of his side's habit of producing much better showings at home than on their travels. He will be hoping to change that run of form come Wednesday night.
Warne's side have also lost four of their last six outings home or away, conceding two or more in each of the matches before their win over Bristol City, leaving them with the fifth-worst defensive record in the Championship.
Following the trip to Rovers, Rotherham welcome Wayne Rooney's Derby County and then a trip to Middlesbrough on Boxing day.
Blackburn Rovers Championship form: WWWDLL
Rotherham United Championship form: LDLLLW
Team News
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Tony Mowbray will have four players ruled out of this fixture through injury, including Joe Rankin-Costello (hamstring), Scott Wharton (Achilles tendon), Ben Brereton (knee injury) and Corry Evans (knock).
Central defender Darragh Lenihan will serve the final game of his three-match suspension for his straight red card against Brentford.
Much like Mowbray, Rotherham manager Warne also has a host of injuries to contend with.
Joe Mattock (ankle), Kieran Sadlier (ankle), Shaun MacDonald (broken leg), Clark Robertson (broken foot), and Chiedozie Ogbene (knee) are all sidelined.
Blackburn Rovers possible starting lineup:
Kaminski; Nyambe, Lenihan, Ayala, Douglas; Johnson, Holtby, Rothwell; Gallagher, Armstrong, Elliott
Rotherham United possible starting lineup:
Blackman; Harding, MacDonald, Ihiekwe; Olosunde, Barlaser, Crooks, Lindsay, Wiles; Smith, Ladapo
We say: Blackburn Rovers 2-0 Rotherham United
Despite Rovers' poor recent form, we see them finding a way to turn it around and get the win against a porous Rotherham side. If Mowbray's men can show their attacking threat, they should come through this one without too much trouble.
Top betting 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 Blackburn Rovers win with a probability of 44.91%. A win for Rotherham United had a probability of 29.48% and a draw had a probability of 25.6%.
The most likely scoreline for a Blackburn Rovers win was 1-0 with a probability of 10.45%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (9.12%) and 2-0 (7.83%). The likeliest Rotherham United win was 0-1 (8.12%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (12.17%). The actual scoreline of 2-1 was predicted with a 9.1% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Blackburn Rovers would win this match.
