Town face Burton Albion at the Pirelli Stadium on Saturday in their opening away game of the 2021/22 campaign looking for their first victory.
The Blues have travelled to Burton today where they are training at the National Football Centre ahead of the game.
Manager Paul Cook has been there since Wednesday having watched the Brewers’ Carabao Cup tie with Oxford, which the U’s won 4-2 on penalties after a 1-1 draw.
Last Saturday, Burton got their League One season off to a winning start when they won 1-0 away at Shrewsbury.
Cook is looking forward to locking antlers with Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, a boss for whom he has a lot of respect.
"He’s a good manager, he’s a good person, he’s a very good guy,” he said. "I’ve got to know Jimmy through playing against his teams over a period of time.
"Obviously he had a fantastic football career and Burton Albion are a very, very strong team.
"It was a good game on Wednesday night, I was lucky enough to see the game against Oxford myself.
"Burton have got a lot of threats, they play a certain style and they’re effective at it, so we’ve got a very difficult game at the Pirelli Stadium.”
The Blues face Cheltenham in another away fixture on Tuesday. Will Cook have one eye on the trip to Whaddon Road when he names his team having said some of his squad have not had full pre-seasons and are playing catch-up?
"I normally pick teams very early, we train with a plan, we train in relation to the opposition and how they’re going to play,” he said.
"We don’t really look to change what we’re doing, I don’t mind saying that.
"I say to our players, when we set on the pitch every game, we believe we’re the best team and we’re going to take control of the game and we’re going to win the game.
"It doesn’t always happen like that, I’m not a stupid person. Our lads will go out on to the pitch tomorrow preparing exactly like we did for Morecambe and we want to take control of the game.
"Unfortunately, Jimmy’s on the other bench and he’s got his team trying to do exactly the same, so there’s always a trade-off.
"What we’ll get and our supporters will get, we’ll get a real consistency in how we’re trying to play.”
That suggests the team will be very similar to the one which started against the Shrimps. That would see Vaclav Hladky in goal with Kane Vincent-Young at right-back and Matt Penney at left-back.
Cook will be forced into one change at the centre of the defence with Toto Nsiala out with a hamstring problem.
Speaking on Tuesday, Cook said George Edmundson is "still a week or two away” so it’s unlikely the former Rangers man will be involved.
Therefore, it seems probable that Luke Woolfenden, the only player to start both games so far, will be partnered by Janoi Donacien, who replaced Nsiala from the bench last week. Corrie Ndaba looks set to come into the squad as cover.
In midfield, Lee Evans looks set to wear the captain’s armband, as he did against Morecambe, alongside Rekeem Harper.
Scott Fraser seems likely to be on the left with Wes Burns on the right and Conor Chaplin in the number 10 role behind lone striker Joe Pigott.
Cook has confirmed that Kyle Edwards will be in the squad and the former West Brom winger could make his debut from the bench. It’s possible Hayden Coulson could also be among the subs having also joined the club on Monday, on loan from Middlesbrough.
The Blues have sold out their entire 1,700 allocation at the Pirelli Stadium, the first competitive away game fans are able to attend since the trip to Blackpool in February 2020.
Burton will be without centre-half Deji Oshilaja, who was on crutches following Wednesday's Carabao Cup tie, while fellow defenders Michael Mancienne, Michael Bostwick and new signing Aaron Amadi-Holloway have all trained and are in the squad.
Town and Burton have only met eight times in competitive fixtures, all in the league in recent seasons, with Town unbeaten having won seven and drawn one.
The teams most recently met at the Pirelli Stadium in January when on-loan Arsenal defender Mark McGuinness’s first career goal saw the Blues to a hard-fought 1-0 victory against then-bottom Burton.
The centre-half nodded home a deflected Alan Judge cross in the 73rd minute following a free-kick with sub Aaron Drinan having hit the bar four minutes earlier.
A month earlier at Portman Road - only one game previously due to Town’s four holiday period Covid postponements - the Blues ran out 2-1 victors.
Keanan Bennetts gave Town the lead in only the fourth minute but Joe Powell hit back for the Brewers on 22 with Emyr Huws heading in a scruffy rebound, his first goal in more than three years, 10 minutes from time to hand the points to the Blues, who as a result climbed to fifth.
Burton’s squad includes former Blues winger Danny Rowe, who joined the Brewers in January.
Rowe made 14 starts and 15 sub appearances for Town between January 2017 and May 2020, scoring once.
Central defender Oshilaja came very close to joining the Blues in the summer of 2018.
Oshilaja, then with AFC Wimbledon, was at Portman Road to complete a switch but the clubs were unable to agree a fee.
Blues midfielder Fraser was with the Brewers between July 2018 and September 2020, making 81 starts and 10 sub appearances, scoring 16 times.
Saturday’s referee is Sam Purkiss from London, who will be taking charge of his second league game involving the Blues.
Purkiss, who has shown nine yellow cards and no red in his two games so far this season, took charge of the 1-0 home victory over Plymouth in March in which he kept his cards in his pocket throughout.
Prior to that he had previously only taken charge of EFL Trophy games away from home involving Town.
The 2-0 loss at Crawley last season, in which he booked Bennetts and one home player, and the 1-0 defeat at Colchester the campaign before in which he booked James Wilson and two U’s.
Squad from: Hladky, Holy, Vincent-Young, Donacien, Penney, Coulson, Woolfenden, Ndaba, Evans (c), Harper, Fraser, Burns, Humphreys, Ward, Chaplin, Dobra, Edwards, Pigott, Bonne, Barry, Jackson.