The Town players and staff flew out to Moscow today ahead of many of the fans that will cheer them on. All 22 players in the named squad made the trip with Bramble and Reuser the doubts as reported earlier, but they still travelled.
Approximately 1,000 Town fans will be making their presence felt in a stadium that may hold over 80,000 but only 4,000 saw Torpedo’s last league game. It is not yet known how ticket sales are going over there for our match.
Torpedo Moscow were scheduled to play Spartak Moscow at the weekend but was cancelled by their request in order to keep them fresh for the Ipswich game. A luxury we didn’t have as we were beaten 4-0 by Manchester United, a game in which few positives can be taken. A 1-0 win will see Town through to the next round though, but will need to tighten up the defence that has yet to keep a clean sheet this season.
The Worthington Cup match against Crewe has been brought forward a day to October 9th. Last year we reached a 2 legged semi-final against Birmingham of course, but this year we are unlikely to be taking the competition too seriously, especially if we remain in the UEFA Cup. We have players that would be eager to have a chance to play in the first team such as Darren bent, Sixto Peralta and Tommy Miller, and all will be likely to have a run out.