x

Town Travel to Germany For Second Training Camp - Ipswich Town News

The Town squad travels to Germany for their second pre-season camp today with the Blues facing Bundesliga sides Borussia Mönchengladbach and Hoffenheim in friendlies on Friday and Saturday.

The squad will be based in the Munich area around an hour from each game with the first friendly against Borussia on Friday at the ATS Sportpark in Heimstetten (KO 2.30pm CET, 1.30pm BST).

On Saturday, the Blues take on Die Kraichgauer at the Kufstein Arena on the border of Austria and Germany, (KO 1.30pm CET, 12.30pm BST).

The short trip is the second of the summer, the squad having spent a week at Sportzentrum Landskron in Villach, Austria, concluding with a 1-0 victory over Ukrainian champions Shakhtar Donetsk in their first public friendly of the summer.

Speaking on Saturday following the 2-1 defeat to another Bundesliga side, Fortuna Düsseldorf, Blues boss Kieran McKenna was hoping to added to his squad before the trip, however, no new additions have been made.

Blackburn’s Sammie Szmodics seemed the most likely but that deal continues to rumble on, despite expectations that last year’s 27-goal Championship top scorer will eventually be confirmed as a Town player.

"I think we all really enjoyed the first one,” McKenna said regarding the Austria trip. "Every part of it, the training, the off-the-pitch and the game as well, so it’s good to have another one again.

"It’s important for the group and we’d like to have maybe a bigger group or more players in that we can integrate, so let’s hope that there could be some movement before we travel on Wednesday.

"But other than that it’s going to be great to go away with these boys again, with the boys that we have brought in and continue to get stronger on and off the pitch, so we’re looking forward to it.”

McKenna ideally would like to field two different senior teams in each match but with a number of players sidelined - although Omari Hutchinson posted that he had returned to training after a minor niggle on social media yesterday - says he may not be able to do so.

"We hope so because the games are pretty close apart,” he added. "But we don’t have the bodies for that in terms of senior players at the moment, so we’re going to have to have a look at it and try and find the right balance between stretching and pushing the boys with minutes but not over-pushing them. In an ideal scenario we’d have two separate XIs to play the games.”

Youngsters Finley Barbrook and Leon Ayinde are again likely to be involved having been with the squad throughout pre-season up to now.

Elsewhere, former Blues midfielder Jon Nolan, 32, is on trial back at Shrewsbury, the club he left to move to Town from in the summer of 2018 in a joint-deal along with Toto Nsiala.

Nsiala, also 32, rejoined the Shrews, who are once again managed by former Blues boss Paul Hurst, earlier in the summer.

What to read next:

[Podcast] Blue Monday - New Podcast Now Online
A new podcast from the Blue Monday team is now available.
Town Women Claim First Ever WSL2 Victory
Ipswich Town Women made history by recording their first ever win in the second tier of English women’s football, a late Paige Peake penalty securing a 3-2 victory over Portsmouth in a frenetic and sometimes feisty home WSL2 fixture at Colchester’s JobServe Community Stadium.
Hirst: Plenty More to Come From Us
Town striker George Hirst believes there is much more to come from the Blues after back-to-back victories against Sheffield United and Portsmouth at Portman Road.
Town Women Host Pompey
Ipswich Town Women will be looking to build on last week’s first WSL2 point of the season when they host Portsmouth at Colchester’s JobServe Community Stadium this afternoon (KO 2pm, live on YouTube).
U18s Beaten at Leicester
Town’s U18s were beaten 2-1 away by Leicester City yesterday.
Gray's New Zealand U20s Suffer Late Defeat
Blues keeper Henry Gray’s New Zealand U20s were beaten 2-1 by hosts Chile in their opening group game at the U20 World Cup overnight, an injury time goal handing victory to the South Americans.
Ipswich Town 2-1 Portsmouth - Highlights
Highlights of this afternoon’s 2-1 home victory over Portsmouth.
Hirst: Jaden's Flying at the Minute
Town striker George Hirst lauded fellow goalscorer Jaden Philogene after the Blues’ 2-1 victory over Portsmouth at Portman Road.
Mousinho: We Waited to Go Two Down to Actually Play
Portsmouth head coach John Mousinho felt his side waited for Town to go two goals in front before starting to play during their 2-1 loss at Portman Road.
McKenna: A Dominant Performance
Boss Kieran McKenna felt the Blues’ 2-1 home victory over Portsmouth felt like a dominant display even if the scoreline didn’t indicate that that was the case.