Borussia Mönchengladbach sporting director Roland Virkus says Town’s decision to field an U21s squad in this afternoon’s friendly between the clubs at the ATS Sportpark in Heimstetten is “incredibly disappointing” (KO 2.30pm CET, 1.30pm BST).

The Blues announced last night that it would be a young squad managed by John McGreal taking on Die Fohlen in this afternoon’s match, Town having been impacted by injuries during pre-season.

Keeper Cieran Slicker is the only player with any first team experience in the Blues’ XI, while Die Fohlen have named a very strong side.

“We’ve had a great training camp and were hoping to round the week off with a friendly against strong English opposition,” Virkus told his club social media.

“That Ipswich have now gone against our contractual agreement due to personnel issues is incredibly disappointing and has left us very frustrated.

“Unfortunately, we were unable to find an alternate friendly opponent at short notice, so we have no choice but to try and make the best out of the situation.”

Ideally, Blues boss Kieran McKenna would have liked to have fielded two separate senior XIs in the games against Borussia and then Hoffenheim on Saturday, but admitted at the weekend he was struggling for numbers with a number of players having picked up knocks.

“We hope so because the games are pretty close apart,” McKenna said when asked whether he planned to field different sides in the two matches following last Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to Fortuna Düsseldorf at Portman Road.

“But we don’t have the bodies for that in terms of senior players at the moment, so we’re going to have to have a look at it and try and find the right balance between stretching and pushing the boys with minutes but not over-pushing them. In an ideal scenario we’d have two separate XIs to play the games.”

Town U21s: Slicker, Jambang, H Barbrook, Maionis (c), Ayoola, Turner, Valentine, Carr, Foyo, Roberts, Ayinde. Subs: Williamson, Okunowo, Nwabueze, O Davis, T Taylor, Onuchukwu, Babb, Morgan.

Borussia: Omlin, Itakura, Stöger, Weigl, Honorat, Kleindienst, Plea, Netz, Reitz, Scally, Elvedi.

Photo: IMAGO/fohlenfoto via Reuters Connect

dirtydingusmagee added 14:09 - Aug 2 Disappointing yes and dosnt look good BUT,it cant be helped, Town apologise and we move on, more important issues to deal with imo .
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BlueInBerks added 14:09 - Aug 2 Added impetus for the U21's to do well
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cressi added 14:10 - Aug 2 I am slightly concerned Ashton becoming chairman got enough on his plate wish we had somebody in that role also he may need reeling in time to time.As for signings I'm just not sure maybe if or when other players come in il have more off a idea.
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churchmans added 14:13 - Aug 2 @BEATIES BACKPOCKET what if olympique nice turned up and played an u21 side be fore our season starts??? We won't be invited back to any pre season tournaments with these teams now! I'm more concerned that we are 2weeks away from a season opener and we cannot field a strong starting 11
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churchmans added 14:13 - Aug 2 @BEATIES BACKPOCKET what if olympique nice turned up and played an u21 side be fore our season starts??? We won't be invited back to any pre season tournaments with these teams now! I'm more concerned that we are 2weeks away from a season opener and we cannot field a strong starting 11
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churchmans added 14:13 - Aug 2 @BEATIES BACKPOCKET what if olympique nice turned up and played an u21 side be fore our season starts??? We won't be invited back to any pre season tournaments with these teams now! I'm more concerned that we are 2weeks away from a season opener and we cannot field a strong starting 11
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Kickingblock added 14:15 - Aug 2 Disappointing for the fans that have paid. Very bad luck. I can't blame the hosts for feeling let down. You never know, the U21's might give a great account of themselves.
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BeattiesBackPocket added 14:20 - Aug 2 Churchman’s I honestly wouldn’t care less it’s a ‘FRIENDLY’ but I go anyway same as some of the pointless cup matches where we change the whole 11 again that I’ll go to as I’ll support whoever’s playing I’m guessing from your comment you don’t! As the majority of the people who moan at literally ANYTHING on here!!
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BeattiesBackPocket added 14:23 - Aug 2 Churchman’s you’re already contradicting yourself and can’t even see it!?!? ‘I’m more concerned we’re two weeks away and can’t field a strong starting 11’ but want us to risk even more players??? It’s a laughable comment. Also there’s already a massive injury to Valentine in this game so how would you feel if it was Burns or Hutchinson or another big player?? Give you even more reason to moan.

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ITFCson added 14:38 - Aug 2 Town don’t get much wrong lately but this is a horror show. BMGB would have sold tickets to fans expecting a good game vs a prem team. Town ought to get fined for this.
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ITFCson added 14:41 - Aug 2 On a plus note for savvy bettors BMGB opened at 1.80 and went off as low as 1.05 with some firms.
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Cheshire_Blue added 14:43 - Aug 2 It's not just 'signings' that we need, it's signings that are capable of competing at Premier League level. We need to avoid finding ourselves adrift at the bottom at Xmas.
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Ryorry added 15:17 - Aug 2 Can understand his disappointmnt, but we can't forsee or help injuries. KM's first duty is to protect the squad for the opening of the league season.
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blues1 added 15:34 - Aug 2 Churchmans. We can field a strong team. Just not 2 days on the trot. Mckenna,clearly wants to have a whole 1st team squad for one of the games rather than have a,half and half for both games. Hence tge decision being made. As for not being inverted back? Rubbish. This will have no effect on that. Just circumstances have led to this position.
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Linkboy13 added 16:07 - Aug 2 Tetchris you are not allowed to criticise Mr Ashdon on here he's god and you will upset the happy clappers. Mr Ashdon gets paid very well so it's his responsibility and to say if you can do better do it yourself is a stupid juvenile remark. Personally i couldn't give two hoots how many down marks i get on here i will always say it as it is.
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algarvefan added 16:09 - Aug 2 If we had played players with knocks and they became long term injuries, you would have moaned about that too, some of you would moan about anything and everything. Sensible decision by the boss, putting the club first. BM were a bunch of cloggers in my opinion and didn't like being shown up by an U21 side at times. Looking forward to the game tomorrow and well done to John McGreal and his lads.

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PackwoodBlue added 16:11 - Aug 2 Not ideal for anyone and certainly disappointing for them and the fans that travelled all that way to watch. However, in KM/MA we must trust. For all the ramblings of Mr Virkus, although the better team, 3-1 is hardly an empthatic victory against a team of U21s not long back from a summer break, so they may have a bit of work to do and will have been a good eye opener for them that they're perhaps not quite where they would like to be..

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algarvefan added 16:12 - Aug 2 Linkboy13 it's Ashton not Ashdon.
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braveblue added 16:14 - Aug 2 Very poor show.
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Dissboyitfc added 16:24 - Aug 2 No linkboy, you say it how you see it and not how it is, you are sharing your opinion which you are entitled to, as I am too and in my opinion Ashton is doing a great job! I for one don’t think for one second that signing players, the right players is easy, they have to be the right player at the right price with the right attitude on and off the pitch and of course they have to want to come. Whisk disappointing for the Germans Kms priority is our preseason preparations. Did we ever get our friendly against Serenis side?

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SickParrot added 16:31 - Aug 2 BMG are entitled to feel let down but given that we're so short of players it was the best option for us. If we had played a mix of first team and kids in both games Kieran would only have had the Nice game left to field his best team before the season starts. I am surprised that we ever thought that we would be able to play first team friendlies in consecutive days. Also, as we knew we would be struggling for numbers a week ago, it's a shame we couldn't give BMG a bit more notice. With only 2 weeks left to get players fit and sign and bed in more new players, it now looks as if we will not be upto speed for at least the first few games.

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Marinersnose added 17:04 - Aug 2 No surprise that he’s disappointed as this appears to be unprofessional and a tad disrespectful. On the flip side we have a tiny squad and some deadwood to ship out so McKenna has his work cut out to get a fit starting 11 for Liverpool. Hopefully another 3 or 4 through the door next week as we still haven’t signed a midfielder.
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jas0999 added 17:09 - Aug 2 Lots of great stuff from the club over the past three years, barely put a foot wrong. This is an incredibly poor show though. Disappointing and disrespectful to the opposition and the fans who made the trip. Clearly worrying in terms of preparation as well. KM was brutally honest last weekend and just the one signing this week - a back up player at that. The squad is thin and needs urgent additions.

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baxterbasics added 17:10 - Aug 2 I understand his gripe but am I bothered? Nope. ITFC had their reasons.
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IPSWICHINIO added 18:04 - Aug 2 Surprised at the number of comments defending the club here. Whether or not Town were justified in sending the U21s isn't the issue. Th issue is the fact that Town only communicated this 24 hours before the game to fans and Monchengladbach. Surely, they would have known at the very least a week ago, and probably even weeks ago, that we wouldn't be able to field two sides 24 hours apart. We've been struggling all preseason to fulfil our schedule, so why didn't they communicate it sooner? Really amateur and even incompetent from the club. Imagine if Nice let us know next Friday that they're sending their u21s - we would be fuming.

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