Town beat a Tottenham Hotspur XI 3-2 in this afternoon’s 70-minute training game at the Premier League club’s Hotspur Way, Conor Chaplin netting a hat-trick as the Blues came from two goals down.
The home side went two goals in front via Lucas Moura and Japhet Tanganga before Town top scorer Chaplin scored three times in the last 20 minutes.
Town travelled with a full strength squad, while the North Londoners fielded mainly U21s due to international calls, although keeper and captain Hugo Lloris was involved as he returns from injury.
Under fire manager Antonio Conte missed the game as he is in Italy, so his assistant Cristian Stellini and coach Ryan Mason were in charge of the Lilywhites.
The Blues are without a first-team match this weekend as Saturday’s match at Barnsley has been postponed due to international calls.
Town were looking to give everyone some time on the pitch with the main aim to give fringe players minutes.
Speaking after the 2-0 victory over Shrewsbury at the weekend, manager Kieran McKenna, a one-time academy player and coach at Tottenham, outlined his plans for the break.
"It’s a balance,” he said. "We can’t switch off too much mentally or physically because we’re in the thick end of the season,” he said.
"Of course, there’ll be a few days off but also we need to work, we need to stay sharp, we need to work to improve things.
"We’ll look to get some minutes into and some work into the legs of those who haven’t played so much.
"Those who have played a bit more can benefit from the recovery a little bit more. But we have to use it to our benefit, we didn’t ask for there to be an international break, no problem if there hadn’t have been one to continue next week, but the situation is what it is.
"And we have to make the most of that situation in terms of getting the balance of recovery but also good work on the training ground to make sure we’re ready for the last nine games, obviously starting with the big one against Derby.”