Town continue their pre-season friendly programme against Premier League West Ham United at Portman Road this evening (KO 7pm).

The game is the Blues’ third fixture of pre-season following the 7-0 thrashing of Needham Market at Bloomfields at the end of last month and the 5-1 loss to a strong Arsenal side behind closed doors at London Colney just over a week ago.

Town, who spent last week at a training camp at Loughborough University, fielded different teams in each half of those matches and could do the same against the Hammers. Alternatively, manager Kieran McKenna may look to up some of the squad to 60 minutes.

George Edmundson (ankle), Kayden Jackson (hamstring) and Tyreece John-Jules (quad) all look set to play a part in a game for the first time in pre-season following last season’s injuries.

West Ham have two games this evening, at Portman Road and also another friendly at National League club Boreham Wood.

The Hammers’ side at Portman Road could include two former Blues, ex-full-back Aaron Cresswell, who moved to the East Londoners from Town in the summer of 2014, and midfielder Flynn Downes, who signed from Swansea last week.

Cresswell, 32, says he’s looking forward to seeing his new team-mate in action for the first time.

“I’ve heard some good things about him,“ Cresswell told the official West Ham website.

“And funnily enough I know his agent well as well, and he said Flynn is a great kid and he works hard and he’s good on the ball and I’m excited to see him play, so he’s a great addition to the squad.”

The Hammers were last at Portman Road in pre-season ahead of 2020/21 when they comfortably beat the Blues 4-1 and before that they visited Suffolk in 2018 when they won 2-1.

Town have sold more than 12,000 tickets for this evening's match with seats still available in the upper tiers of the Sir Alf Ramsey Stand and Magnus Group West Stand and in more limited numbers in the lower tier of the Sir Bobby Robson Stand.

Photo: Matchday Images

Bazza8564 added 12:21 - Jul 12 Will be great to get to PR again and 12000 says lots of us feel the same way. A few new faces too, personally i can't wait
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Bazza8564 added 12:21 - Jul 12 Will be great to get to PR again and 12000 says lots of us feel the same way. A few new faces too, personally i can't wait
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Barty added 12:29 - Jul 12 Really looking forward to it and hopefully we can give a good account of ourselves.
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blues1 added 13:37 - Jul 12 Yer, be good to get to watch a game again. But please let's have no pathetic negative comments on here if we do get well beaten. Can,see the comments already if say we were to lose 4-0, . "We've got no chance this year". " Mckenna out". That sort of stuff. This game, like every other friendly will have no bearing on what will happen during the season. So let's all just enjoy being back at pr watching itfc.

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BeattiesBackPocket added 15:44 - Jul 12 As I said before and after the arsenal game I'd rather have games against prem sides now near the start of pre season because they will be the teams who have the quality to expose any weaknesses in the team and where we need to work on. For far too many years this would be our game week before the season then it's too late to do anything. Like blues1 said let's be realistic we're two league away from them at the moment and they're a top 5/6 prem side past two years so realistic expectations please

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Ipswichbusiness added 17:13 - Jul 12 It is wonderful that we can attract 12,000+ for a mostly meaningless pre-season friendly. Other clubs in our League (or even the Championship) must be jealous!
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