Town finished their pre-season friendly programme with a 1-1 draw with Italian Serie A giants Fiorentina. Star of the show was Titus Bramble who put on an awesome display at the back against world class strikers like Portugal's Nuno Gomes.
Such was the Town number 19's influence on the game that it was he who scored the Blues' goal after 37 minutes. Jim Magilton floated in a lovely free-kick from the right after Jermaine Wright had been upended. Bramble rose at the far post to nod home.
The powerful centre-half tackled cleanly, solidly and confidently all afternoon as well as making one or two incisive passes. He even had time to showboat a touch, taking the ball past Fiorentina's strikers on a couple of occasions.
Town created several opportunities, but couldn't put the ball in the net again. David Johnson had a number of opportunities, although none of them could be called clear-cut. His best came in the second half when he managed to get himself one-on-one with the keeper, only to be pushed to the ground by a defender. It looked a fairly clear penalty, however the referee missed it.
By this time Fiorentina had got a goal back. A run down the left saw a swift cross swing in and Marco Rossi hammer home from close range. The attentions of Mark Venus and John Scales failed to stop the Fiorentina man getting in.
Over all though, Town passed the ball about very nicely and matched their more illustrious opponents. Above all else, however, this afternoon showed that the Blues don't have to look very far for a new centre-half - we've already got him.
Town line-up: R Wright, Clapham, Wilnis (Croft), Venus (Brown), Bramble, Scales, Holland, Magilton, J Wright (Reuser), Johnson, Scowcroft (Stewart).