Town play their second game of pre-season against National League Maidenhead United at Needham Market’s Bloomfields this evening (KO 7.45pm).
Manager Kieran McKenna plans to field a different team in each half, as he did in last Saturday’s 6-0 win at Felixstowe & Walton United but with his players getting 45 minutes under their belts on this occasion rather than the 35 minutes as ended up being the case at the AGL Arena.
"Maidenhead next Friday night and all being well with the training week this week, we’ll have 22 players fit and ready to go and we’ll share the minutes across the 90 and will look to build up progressively as the pre-season goes on,” he said following the victory over the Seasiders.
The Blues played a friendly against Needham at Bloomfields at the start of pre-season last year, when they won 7-0, and McKenna was impressed by the Southern League Premier Division Central club and sees tonight’s match as the nearest thing to a home friendly with Portman Road unavailable due to the renovation of the surface which is taking place this summer.
"It was a really good set-up, new facilities and the pitch was in good condition as well,” he said.
"Of course, we don’t have our pitch, we have quite a bit of travelling over the course of pre-season, so we’er pleased to able to get a game on Friday quite close to home without so much travelling, which isn’t easy in Suffolk, before we travel to Austria.
"We’re glad that they’ve agreed to host us and we can have as close to a home fixture as we’re going to have in the next few weeks.”
New signing Jack Taylor will make his first appearance in a Town shirt, while Nathan Broadhead joined him to start pre-season training on Monday.
"Wes Burns and Cameron Burgess both missed the Felixstowe & Walton match, the former having been suffering with a groin problem earlier in the summer, but may well be involved this evening.
Striker Joe Pigott hasn’t joined up with the Town squad so far this summer with the former AFC Wimbledon man expected to depart the club in the next few days, following Rekeem Harper’s recent exit. The midfielder subsequently joined Burton Albion.
Maidenhead, who are managed by former West Ham and England midfielder Alan Devonshire, finished 20th in the fifth tier last season.
The Berkshire side began pre-season this week and are looking forward to taking on the Blues.
"To get a game early on, against such a strong side is great. I would imagine they’ll go into that game quite strong,” assistant boss Ryan Peters told the Maidenhead Advertiser.
"It’s going to give us a good grounding and an understanding of where they are. And for some of our younger boys, it’s a chance for them to see where they could get to in a few years’ time.”
The Magpies could be set for a considerable windfall with former player Max Kilman, now with Wolves, understood to be the subject of a rejected £30 million offer from Serie A champions Napoli with the Premier League side said to value him at £35 million.
The defender, 26, joined Maidenhead from Welling United in 2015 before moving on to Wolves for a reported £40,000 three years later. A sell-on clause believed to be 20 per cent was included in that deal, which could yield close to £7 million if the Napoli switch goes through.
Town travel to Austria for their week-long training camp on Sunday with two games scheduled for next Saturday, a behind-closed-doors training ground match against Slovakian side Spartak Trnava at 11am CEST (10am BST) and then Flyeralarm Admira, also known as Admira Wacker, at their motion_invest Arena in Mödling at 5pm CEST (4pm BST).
A list of Town's pre-season matches which have been announced can be found here.