Town continue their pre-season friendly programme when they host fellow Championship side Charlton Athletic at Colchester United’s JobServe Community Stadium this evening (KO 7.30pm).
The Blues have no Portman Road friendlies this summer with the annual scrape and seed of the pitch having taken place either side of the recent Ed Sheeran concerts, not allowing time for a pre-season match.
The Blues go into tonight’s fixture having lost 1-0 in a behind-close-doors game with Peterborough before a 4-1 away win against Blau Weiß Linz in Austria at the end of the week-long training camp.
Last Tuesday afternoon, they fell to 1-0 and 2-0 defeats to Premier League West Ham in two 60-minute matches at their training ground.
On Friday, Town impressed as they beat Scottish Premiership side Aberdeen, whose season proper starts on Monday, at Pittodrie.
Manager Kieran McKenna said after that game that those who were on the bench and came on after 65 minutes in Scotland are likely to be the starters this evening.
That would see a line-up of Christian Walton in goal with Luke Woolfenden and Conor Townsend the full-backs, and Cedric Kipre and Elkan Baggott the centre-backs.
Harry Clarke would be in central midfield alongside Cameron Humphreys with Chiedozie Ogbene on the right, Conor Chaplin in the middle and Nathan Broadhead on the left, and Ali Al-Hamadi the striker. Again, wholesale changes are likely to be made around the hour mark.
Another Town XI is playing Colchester United in a behind-closed-doors friendly this afternoon, so that may indicate the Blues are fielding two different first-team sides today with the U21s at Bury Town for a friendly this evening.
McKenna said on Friday that it was still to be decided whether Omari Hutchinson would be involved against the Addicks, but that "I would have thought next week we’ll get him in and around it”.
Hutchinson, a target of Premier League Brentford, returned to training last week having helped the England U21s to win the Euros in Slovakia last month.
The former Chelsea man has been working alongside new signing Ashley Young at Playford Road. Young similarly may not yet be considered ready for involvement this evening.
Wes Burns and Aro Muric have not been involved in pre-season so far as they continue their recoveries from their ACL and shoulder injuries, while keeper Cieran Slicker is again unlikely to feature as he looks for a loan club.
Charlton are back in the Championship having won promotion from League One last season via the play-offs, beating Leyton Orient 1-0 in the final.
Managed by former Luton, Stoke and Southampton boss Nathan Jones, the South Londoners won 3-2 away at Dartford in their opening friendly before a 2-0 victory against Croatian top division side HNK Gorica in Slovenia.
A 3-0 away win at Wealdstone followed, before a 1-1 draw against League Two Cambridge United on Saturday at the Abbey Stadium.
Former Blues striker Gassan Ahadme is a member of the Charlton squad having joined them from Town in July last year. The 24-year-old had a disappointing spell with the Blues, scoring once in one start and seven sub appearances in two injury hit years at the club.
While it’s unusual to play a team from the same division in pre-season, the Blues faced Preston ahead of their 2023/24 campaign at Deepdale, running out 2-1 winners.
Town last faced the Addicks in League One at Portman Road in April 2023 when the promotion-bound Blues romped to a 6-0 victory, Conor Chaplin hitting a hat-trick, Freddie Ladapo, who joined Charlton on loan in the following campaign, a brace and Leif Davis one.
Earlier in the 2022/23 season, the teams had drawn 4-4 at the Valley in an extraordinary game in which the Blues had a secured a 4-2 lead in injury time before conceding two late, late goals.
George Edmundson and Tyreece John-Jules put the Blues 2-0 in front but the Addicks hit back through Jes Rak-Sakyi and and Albie Morgan.
However, in injury time, Town restored their two-goal advantage through Ladapo and Sam Morsy, but Terell Thomas and George Dobson netted in the sixth and ninth minutes of the additional time to claim a remarkable point for the home side.
The teams last met in pre-season at the Valley ahead of the 2017/18 season with the then-League One Addicks hammering Mick McCarthy’s Championship Blues 6-1 a week before the start of the campaign proper.
Patrick Bauer, Tariqe Fosu and Josh Magennis (2) put the home side 4-0 up at half-time before two Ricky Holmes strikes sandwiched Andre Dozzell’s solitary goal for Town in the second half.
Typically for pre-season, the Blues beat Birmingham City 1-0 at home the following week in their league opener and then won the next four in all competitions.