Ipswich Town boss hopeful of ‘optimism’ ahead of clash with Sunderland as Sheffield Wednesday outline their plans to strengthen in January

Following a weekend without football, after international call-ups meant their scheduled game with Lincoln City was postponed this weekend, results in League One meant Lee Johnson’s side dropped two places to 7th in the table.

However, it wasn’t all bad news for Sunderland as Ipswich, Oxford United, Sheffield Wednesday and Wycombe Wanderers all dropped points.

With that in mind, here’s all the latest League One gossip involving Sunderland’s promotion-chasing rivals:

Paul Cook’s ‘optimism’ ahead of Sunderland trip

Ipswich played out a 0-0 draw with Oxford United yesterday, a result which keeps Ipswich four points behind the Black Cats ahead of their clash at the Stadium of Light on Saturday.

Ipswich have had a tough set of futures recently, however, boss Paul Cook is relishing the trip to the north east on Saturday and believes his side can be full of ‘optimism’ against Lee Johnson’s side:

“We've played Plymouth [2-1 away defeat], Wycombe [4-1 win] and Oxford.

“With the greatest respect to all three teams, I think we've been the better team on the pitch on each occasion. So while the points tally only says four, on another day it might say more.

"We'll travel to all the games now with our supporters hopefully believing in the optimism that's coming.”

Sheffield Wednesday January plans revealed

Last week, it was revealed that Sheffield Wednesday centre-back Dominic Iorfa will be out with injury until the new year.

Owls boss Darren Moore has responded to this and told YorkshireLive that they will be looking to strengthen their defence in the January window:

“Obviously that’s something that will be spoken about and is being looked at not just now but for weeks now in terms of identifying the right bodies for what we need.

“That’s football for you, it’s part and parcel of the unforeseen and we’ll look towards that. The work is going in for that.

“At the moment we have a multitude of games to think about and worry about before that happens. But yes it’s certainly an area we’ll be looking at in January.”

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