Blues boss Paul Hurst will be among those watching the U23s at Lowestoft this evening and says one of the younger group who will be involved at the Amber Dew Events Stadium has already caught his eye (KO 7.45pm).
"I didn’t want to bring as many as we did at the weekend and then just be sat there on the bench,” Hurst said explaining why he took a smaller squad to last night’s first-team friendly agains Crawley at East Grinstead.
"They’ve got a game at Lowestoft, a couple of the lads that came on late [last night] will play in that game as well.
"They trained [on Tuesday], we watched training this morning before travelling down and I think that’s better for them all. Gets them 75-90 minutes this evening.”
Barry Cotter, Conor McKendry, Pat Webber, Aaron Drinan and Brett McGavin were those to travel to Braintree but not to East Grinstead. Josh Emmanuel, Ben Folami and Jordan Roberts came on late against the Red Devils.
Ben Morris is away with the England U19s, while Shane McLoughlin has been back in Ireland following a family bereavement.
Hurst confirmed he’ll be making the trip to north Suffolk: "I’ll be there at Lowestoft. I’m not saying I’ll be at every single one [of the U23s friendlies], but I’ll certainly be there.
"It’s early days, I want to see them. On the training ground is one thing, in games against what will be decent opposition as well [is another], a physical test certainly for them. I want to see if one or two of them can step up.
"In training one lad has particularly caught my eye out of the younger group and I’m looking for more of them to do that.”
Hurst wouldn’t comment on who that might be and says the chance is always there for players to make an impact upon him.
"It’s always about impressing and some have and some haven’t,” he added. "As I said at the weekend, people might find it harsh what I’m saying, but some aren’t as good as other people think and some have done better than maybe what people think.
"As I’ve said from the start, it’s a fresh beginning for everybody and I did say I don’t care how many games, say, Luke Chambers has played. He’s got to impress and so have the young lads. They might really step up and force their way into my thoughts.”
There is a further friendly on Thursday when a Town XI faces AFC Sudbury at King’s Marsh (KO 7.45pm).
Town U23s coach Gerard Nash recently passed the UEFA Pro Licence course with the Football Association of Ireland.