Dominic Ball and Richard Keogh will make their debuts when the Blues face League Two Northampton Town at Portman Road on Tuesday in this season’s first Papa John’s Trophy tie.
Ball was on the bench for the first time during Saturday’s 2-2 draw with Barnsley having suffered an ankle injury in pre-season, while Keogh has yet to be included in an 18 following his move from Blackpool having missed the Seasiders’ early games due to a groin problem.
Manager Kieran McKenna confirmed that the experienced duo would be handed their debuts in what will be a much-changed team facing the Cobblers.
"Dominic and Richard Keogh should be available for a debut, so it will be good to see them get some competitive action as well as other players in the group,” he said following Saturday’s match.
Reflecting on how he views the Papa John’s Trophy this season, McKenna added: "It’s obviously a different competition. Our overriding priority is the league and that has to be really clear in all of our decisions.
"Primarily for me, the group stages will be about minutes for the squad and an opportunity to look at different players, possibly look at some different options in terms of set-ups as well throughout the three games.
"It’s really important that we maintain our standards, we don’t accept - and the players don’t accept, to be fair - anything less than 100 per cent in training so certainly don’t expect or accept anything less than that on Tuesday night.
"The players know that it’s a competitive game with a paying public and we have to respect that but those are the demands that we place on them every day at Playford Road in front of nobody.
"Expect a committed performance and we’ll do everything we can to win the game but absolutely the priority is to progress in the league and improve our position from last year, and we will use these games for different reasons.”
It seems likely McKenna will field a team similar to the one which lost 1-0 to Colchester in the Carabao Cup.
That could see Vaclav Hladky start in goal, or perhaps Nick Hayes if McKenna is looking to give the 23-year-old his full Town debut. Otherwise the former England U17 international will probably be among the subs.
Keogh is likely to be at the centre of the back three with Kane Vincent-Young probably to his right and Cameron Burgess to his left with Kyle Edwards and Greg Leigh likely to be the wing-backs.
Ball will be in the centre of midfield alongside Cameron Humphreys with Sone Aluko and Marcus Harness probably behind Kayden Jackson.
Northampton manager Jon Brady similarly says he will make changes while still attempting to win the match.
"We will go to Ipswich and try and be the best version of ourselves that we can be,” he told his club’s official website.
"We will make changes, there are some players who need minutes and we will look at that but we will also trying to win the game.
"Akin Odimayo came on on Saturday and will get minutes, so will Jack Sowerby and we hope that Josh Eppiah will get some minutes too.
"Josh only trained for a full week for the first time last week and we will go carefully with him. Usually players have six weeks in pre-season but Josh hasn't had that so we are giving him a mini pre-season now.
"It will take time, we need to be patient but we want him for the long term and not the short term.”
The rules of the competition oblige League One and Two clubs to field four qualifying outfield players in their starting XI.
A qualifying outfield player is someone who started the club's previous match, starts the following first-team game, someone in the top 10 players at the club in terms starting appearances in league and domestic cup competitions in the season up to this point, a player with 40 or more first-team appearances over their career or a player on loan from a Premier League or category one EFL side.
If clubs transgress that rule they face a £5,000 fine. The Blues will have no trouble in meeting the requirements for Tuesday's match.
Should the tie remain level at full-time, it goes straight to a penalty shootout with the winner given another point in addition to the one gained for the draw over 90 minutes.
The other two teams in Southern Group H, Cambridge and Arsenal’s U21s, meet at the Abbey Stadium the same evening with a 7pm kick-off.
Last season, Town topped their group but only after West Ham U21s had been docked points for fielding an ineligible player. They exited the competition in the first knockout round, losing 4-3 on penalties to Arsenal's U21s following a 2-2 draw at Portman Road.
Historically, the record is very close between the sides with the Blues having won 12 games (nine in the league) and Northampton 12 (11) with nine (eight) having been draws.
The teams last met at Sixfields in League One in April last year when the Cobblers, who were relegated the following month, ran out comfortable 3-0 victors.
Town’s hopes of making the play-offs were all but ended as Peter Kioso scored twice and Ryan Watson once.
Kioso netted from corners in the eighth and 32nd minute in a first period in which the Cobblers could have been further in front and Gwion Edwards and Freddie Sears hit the woodwork, while Vincent-Young and Oli Hawkins spurned golden opportunities in the second.
With six minutes remaining Watson completed another dreadful evening for the Blues, whose goal drought has now extended to 529 minutes.
At Portman Road in February the same year, stand-in skipper Flynn Downes was red-carded in injury time as dismal Town drew 0-0 with Northampton.
The visitors had the better chances, coming closest wheKioso hit the post in the first half.
Downes was dismissed in the closing minutes for his reaction to being booked for a foul by referee Darren Drysdale, who moments earlier had infamously squared-up to Town midfielder Alan Judge, who he had harshly adjudged to have dived in the area.
Town last beat Northampton in a Carling Cup tie at Portman Road in October 2010 when Carlos Edwards, Damien Delaney and Tamás Priskin were on target for the Blues after Liam Davis had given the visitors the lead.
Tuesday’s referee is Tom Reeves from Birmingham, who has shown 25 yellow cards and no red in seven games so far this season.
Reeves’s only previous Town match was the 2—0 home victory over Lincoln City in March, in which he yellow-carded Bersant Celina and three Imps.
Squad from: Walton, Hladky, Donacien, Woolfenden, Edmundson, Keogh, Burgess, Burns, Vincent-Young, Leigh, Davis, Morsy (c), Evans, Ball, Humphreys, Aluko, Harness, Edwards, Chaplin, John-Jules, Ladapo, Jackson.