Town have named a provisional travelling squad of 17 players for their first pre-season friendly at Finn Harps on Tuesday 7th July. A list supplied to the Irish club includes midfielder Liam Trotter, who is still to put pen to paper on his new deal with the Blues.

The 20-year-old is the last of the four out of contract players given new deals to commit to staying at Town, with former loan club Scunthorpe also having offered a three-year contract. Boss Roy Keane said recently that he expects to hear Trotter's decision this week ahead of the start of pre-season training on Thursday.

Town will have to make one change to the squad given to the Irish club as Jaime Peters is away with Canada at the CONCACAF Gold Cup and won't be back in the UK until at least the following week.

Notable omissions from the provisional party are skipper Gareth McAuley, striker Jordan Rhodes and left-back Ben Thatcher. All three were injured at the end of last season and will start pre-season behind the rest of the squad. Youngsters Ed Upson, Connor Wickham, Reggie Lambe and Jack Ainsley are also missing, along with Luciano Civelli, out until January with a knee ligament injury.

Keane says he will use everyone he can at Finn Park: "We will be taking a decent squad with us and I'll look to give as many of the players as I can a run out, but I don't want to keep making changes and slow the game down, so we will look at half-time as a chance to change things around a bit.

"We will certainly be taking the game seriously. I believe there is something at stake in every game, whether it be a pre-season friendly or the FA Cup final. I'll be looking for the players to put down a marker for the first game of the season at Coventry.

"I'm looking forward to the game. The players will have been back in training for four or five days and will have got a feel of the ball and it will be a good test for us.”

In addition to the playing staff and Keane, Town plan to take first team coach Tony Loughlan, goalkeeper-coach James Hollman, new fitness coach Antonio Gomez and physio Matt Byard.

Keane says he finds pre-season trips to his home country useful exercises: "I enjoy going to Ireland for games. Their season is up and running, so they will probably have the edge on us fitness wise.

"The Irish mentality comes into it as well. They always want to do well against the English clubs and show they can play, so that gives the games a nice edge, without it being over the top. They will have players who will be looking to impress and I'm sure it will be a good challenge for us”.

Tickets for the Finn Harps match are available on the gate, while details of ticketing for Town's games against Waterford United (July 17th) and Cork City (July 19th) can be found here.

Provisional squad: Richard Wright, David Wright, Alex Bruce, Owen Garvan, Pablo Couñago, David Norris, Kevin Lisbie, Jaime Peters, Jon Stead, Pim Balkestein, Danny Haynes, Jon Walters, Alan Quinn, Veliche Shumulikoski, Shane Supple, Tommy Smith, Liam Trotter.

Photo: Action Images

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