Coventry City currently occupy fifth place in the Championship and they take on sixth place Norwich at The Ricoh on Saturday in a game that City boss Aidy Boothroyd want to win to get his sides festive season program off to a flying start.
Coventry have a tough Christmas program and after Norwich they have to play QPR and Cardiff, so a good performance and a fifth successive win is what Boothroyd is after. With his side four points clear of the seventh placed side, Boothroyd is a happy man going into the next game.
"That's a nice position and as the games come thick and fast, particularly to Boxing Day and the five we have got in quick succession, we have got to make sure we hang on to the top two and look to push on from where we are and give ourselves a bigger gap," said Boothroyd to the CT.
"Because once we get back to the Saturday to Saturday games and into January we want to get a good few wins and get that cushion as we start that final push and final run in. Keeping clean sheets is a lovely habit, as is scoring goals and we are slowly getting there but we know it is a difficult period."
The goalless draw at Reading last week saw the City captain Lee Carsley get his fifth yellow card of the season so will miss out on Saturday as he serves his one game suspension.
Carlsey's suspension will mean that Boothroyd will have to make a change for the fist time in four games to his starting line up. Former Norwich player Sammy Clingan could make his return to the squad after a lengthy time out with injury.
Another former canary David Bell could also be in contention for a place after he too has recovered from injury, but the most likely replacement for Carsley will be Iceland international Aron Gunnarsson.
Boothroyd added, "Carso is suspended and will certainly be a miss but we have got Sammy Clingan coming back, or Conor Thomas, or Aron Gunnarsson to go in there and do a job."