Town will not be playing a home friendly during their pre-season ahead of 2017/18, TWTD understands.

Traditionally the Blues have played a game against foreign opposition on the Saturday prior to a season’s start with Belgian visitors Royale Union Saint-Gilloise winning last year’s match 2-1.

Having initially planned to do the same this summer and after holding preliminary discussions regarding potential opposition, Town instead arranged their final friendly away against League One Charlton.

The Blues visit the Valley on Saturday 29th July with the Championship campaign starting a week later on Saturday 5th August.

Town will learn their opening day opponents and their other league fixtures when they are announced on Wednesday 21st June.

We understand the Blues have been keen to get their pre-season programme set in stone early this summer with no further senior friendlies still to be announced. The full list, including some of the U23s games, available here.

As has been the case in previous summers, the squad, which is due back from their close season break on Monday 26th June, will spend a week at the Carton House Hotel in Co Kildare prior to an Ireland-based friendly, this year at Drogheda on Saturday 8th July.

The lack of a late July home friendly will be good news for Town’s groundsmen as it will give them further time to work on the pitch following the Elton John concert on Saturday 17th June.

The Portman Road surface, which showed significant signs of wear and tear in the latter half of the season, is being renovated, as has been the case in previous summers.

Meanwhile, Town sources have again dismissed reports from the North-East claiming that the club received an additional £1 million for Daryl Murphy following Newcastle’s promotion to the Premier League.

The Blues previously rejected the claims when they first appeared in August shortly after the Irish international joined the Magpies for £3 million.

Photo: TWTD

SickParrot added 21:03 - May 26 Makes sense. The majority of fans dread going to games because they are so sh*te, the players don't like playing at home because of the' bad atmosphere' and the dinosaur can avoid further abuse from those 'f**kers who don't appreciate what a great manager he is!!
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delias_cheesy_flaps added 09:58 - May 27 Don't recall this happening before, another step apart between the fans and our once gracious club. To be honest I don't really care nowadays as I've lost most of the love for ITFC.
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gosblue added 10:36 - May 27 Cheesy Like me you are on TWTD before 10:00 am on a Saturday morning desperate for some positive news. The love for ITFC will always be there. We just don't like the way the club is being run atm. The club is tired, we are all tired. A home game v Newcastle in aid of Sir Bobby Robson's fund would be a massive injection of enthusiasm and would give us something to get exciting about. Or how about one of the bigger Scottish clubs, Berra's Hearts for instance. Ipswich til I die.

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woohoo added 08:54 - May 30 Well done ITFC - peed off a few more supporters.
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madmouse1959 added 01:53 - May 31 Some one please tell me what is there at Portman Rd to get excited about anymore ? Even the car boot sale has gone. Kept in the dark and fed B/S five point plans Four years of McCarthy and now we have to build a football team hoping it can score goals, win games and entertain the fans. We have had no FA Cup success .....no Capital Cup excitement....no pre season friendlies at home.....no news of much needed player signings......and finally increased prices about a product you know little about !!.....Then the boring, repetitive, clueless local newspaper speculation about anything the EADT can dream up to keep the fans amused. To cap it all, there is nothing to feel good about coming from a tired manager and an anonymous owner seemingly only "in it" to make money.

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