Blues right-back Darnell Furlong felt the 2-1 victory over League One Wycombe Wanderers at Adams Park was a good test for Town, Cameron Humphreys netting twice late on against his former loan club to secure the win.
Furlong was one of seven players to play the full 90 minutes against the Chairboys, whose season gets up and running with a Carabao Cup tie at home to Stevenage on Friday, with a further nine in the earlier game at Oxford, which finished 2-0 to the home side.
"Another a good test, another set of minutes in the legs. The boys are working hard,” Furlong said of the Adams Park fixture.
"The two games were obviously great for the lads, the whole squad got minutes, so enjoyable and another step.”
While victories aren’t important in pre-season, Furlong admitted it’s preferable to come out on the right end of scorelines.
"It’s not what everything’s about in pre-season, but it is nice to obviously win the game,” he added.
"I think the boys stuck to what we’ve been trying to work on and had a good performance.
"It’s always nice to win games, whenever you go to a game, you don’t think, ’this is pre-season, we don’t need to win’, you want to win as a professional, but it’s not the be all and end all.
"You look at games like today against Oxford and Wycombe, they are a lot ahead of us in their fitness and preparation, so things play a different part, but when we go out, we always try to win.”
It was a memorable afternoon for Humphreys, who won the Wycombe Player of the Year and Young Player of the Year awards during his loan spell in the 2024/25 campaign.
Furlong says he’s always been impressed with the 22-year-old, who spent last season on loan at Huddersfield and seems likely to move on either on a permanent or loan basis again this summer.
"He’s been really working really hard, right from when I came to the club last season. I was really impressed with him,” the former QPR and West Brom man said.
"Obviously, he spent a bit of time away, but he’s been doing brilliant and it’s a nice reward for him and he got us over the line today.”
Reflecting on the week-long training camp in La Manga, the 30-year-old continued: "Really tough, really tough out there, really hot. We were training twice a day some days and it was really hard, but the boys were working together really well in it and it brought the group closer.”
The Blues have signed six players so far this summer - keepers Kayne van Oevelen and Kjell Scherpen, central defender Issa Diop, winger Abdul Fatawu, forward Daizen Maeda and striker Emersonn - and Furlong says he’s enjoying working with them.
"Brilliant. New guys coming in, it was me last year, they’re making the group stronger, some great players, great ability, great experience. So we’re just using it all to our benefit,” he said.
Furlong admits Town need those players to bed in quickly ahead of the start of the Premier League season at home to Sunderland in three weeks’ time.
"It’s obviously the best league in the world, it’s going to be difficult, so the guys getting up to speed is brilliant as and when it comes,” he continued. "But they’ll be doing everything they can to make it immediate.”
Furlong will be back in the Premier League for the first time since 2020/21 with the Baggies, but he says his preparations for the campaign ahead won’t be any different than for more recent Championship seasons.
"Just like any pre-season, really, just about fitness first and with the new manager [Gary O’Neil] as well, taking on his ideas and his knowledge and seeing where it leaves you,” he said.
The Blues are next in action at home to Le Havre at Portman Road and Furlong can’t wait to return to the scene of May’s promotion celebrations.
"Lovely to go back, haven’t been there since the last game of the season,” he reflected. "So it will be nice to get back, be back in front of our fans and feel like we’re home again.”