Brentford have announced that they will play Town in a pre-season friendly at Griffin Park on Friday 11th July (KO 7.30pm). The Blues last played the Bees in a League Cup tie in 2004, winning 2-1 at Portman Road with Tommy Miller and Ian Westlake scoring the goals.

The game is the first pre-season match to be confirmed, although last week sources close to Stockport reported that the Blues could face the Hatters at some stage during their preparations for 2008/09.

Meanwhile, former Blue Chris Makin, 34, has been forced to retire from football due to a hip injury which has kept him out of the Southampton side since September.

Elsewhere, Preston North End will have two recent signings at centre-half when Town are at Deepdale on Saturday. Neil Trotman and Michael Hart joined North End from Halifax and Aberdeen respectively in January and both are yet to make their full debuts for the Lilywhites.

However, with Sean St Ledger (hamstring) and Billy Jones (achilles) set to miss out at the weekend, Preston boss Alan Irvine has only five fit defenders and the Trotman and Hart are likely to get the nod.

Striker Craig Beattie has returned to Deepdale to complete his loan spell from West Brom after recovering from injury.

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