Town boss Gary O’Neil was pleased with his side’s display as they beat Ligue 1 Le Havre 1-0 at Portman Road last night and says there will be more signings to come between now and Sunderland’s visit on the opening day of the Premier League campaign.

Chuba Akpom’s goal in the 58th minute was enough to give the Blues the victory in their peripenultimate friendly but overall O’Neil’s side were comfortable against the French side in their first game at Portman Road under their new manager.

“It felt like a friendly, obviously, which is normal. [We played] two teams, 45 minutes each, bit of running for them to do after, so it felt different to real league games,” O’Neil told TownTV.

“But a decent performance. I thought we were obviously the best side, looked after the ball, could have created more chances. But it was a good exercise.

“We’re not trying to win every friendly game, well, we are, but that’s not the aim, the aim is to get everybody ready for Sunderland and today was another good step towards that.

“Everyone got nearly 90 minutes at the weekend, everyone got their 45-ish today, so we’re in a good spot now to go into Rayo Vallecano [at Portman Road on Saturday], which will be a test and will feel more like a real game.”

O’Neil is happy with the level of fitness shown by the squad, which the data indicates is even higher than last season.

“I think the lads are in great shape and the physical numbers are really, really good. They were already fit last season in the Championship but we’ve managed to improve that again, their numbers are even better at the moment.

“We know that the Premier League’s going to be a challenge for us and we need to be as fit and robust as we can be, and that’s the aim, trying to get the lads to, of course, understand how we play and drop some of the new players in so they can start to learn bits as they’re not quite as up speed as the others because they’ve not been here as long.

“But pleased. I thought they had a good impact today, the new players, added to the quality that we already have.

“Florentino [Luis] obviously joins us as well, which is a big one. We’ve been a little bit short in midfield, so that’ll be a big addition. Issa [Diop] was excellent in the second half, I thought.

“So, a good evening, the first clean sheet as well, which is nice, friendly or no friendly, it’s nice to get a clean sheet. I don’t think the goalkeepers had too much to do.

“We’ll look to add some more. We’ll get to the weekend, try and play well again, and then the real test is coming quickly.”

O’Neil, who was familiar with last night’s opponents having managed in France with Strasbourg in the second half of last season, says their set-up came as a surprise.

“Le Havre have been 4-3-3 all the time and then for some reason they came with a back five this evening and we haven’t done too much with the lads on that yet,” he continued.

“So today was tougher for us tactically than than some of the others, but the lads in the second half, obviously we’d had a look at them in the first half, and the second-half team got a bit more info and were able to create a few more chances and deal with them a better.

“But overall, pleased, pleased with the lads. They’re in a good spot. Two big tests to go now before we get going for real.”

O’Neil felt the curve ball system-wise wasn’t entirely a bad thing: “I thought it was good. The analysts were like, ’oh no, we haven’t prepped for a five, haven’t done any work on five yet!’.

“But I thought it was good. It was a good time for us to face that sort of test and I thought I the lads coped with it well overall, they didn’t cause us too many problems. The lads worked hard, gave everything.

“I enjoyed my first experience of Portman Road. Of course, it was only half full, but I enjoyed it and we’re looking forward to Vallecano, who we played last year with Strasbourg in a semi-final, the Conference League. A good side, got to the final, where they lost to Crystal Palace.

“They’ll come here and they’ll give us a real good test, which we need now at this moment, we’re ready for one of those.”

Reflecting further on his first Portman Road experience since taking over at Town, he added: “I did enjoy it, I did enjoy it. It was what I thought it would be really - great support, good atmosphere.

“Obviously not quite as loud as normal, will be different, hopefully, Saturday it goes up a notch against Vallecano.

“Of course, people will want to look at results and they’ll want to look at some parts of the team, but all this bit is is getting to Sunderland in the best shape with everybody fit, no injuries, new players up to speed, keep adding as many new players as we can.

“We’re going to be busy again. We’re going to try and get as many done before Sunderland as possible. We’re going to try and keep adding to the group and then just keep working with the ones that are here.

“Dara [O’Shea]’s been excellent for me since I’ve come in as a captain, led the team really, really well.

“[Jacob] Greaves has stepped up and been good. So there’s loads of positives so far but, as I say, we’ll know exactly where we’re at come five o’clock on 22nd August when we’ve just faced Sunderland. I’m looking forward to it.”

Regarding Florentino, whose £16 million plus £3 million in potential add-ons signing from Burnley was announced shortly before last night’s kick-off, O’Neil added: “Very, very good defensively, like a traditional number six. Regains the ball well, understands how to control spaces and it’ll help us a lot.

“He’s a profile that we’ve not got fit at the moment. Obviously, Azor [Matusiwa] is similar to that, can give us a similar attributes, but Azor, even if he’s back fit for Sunderland, it’s obviously going to take a little while to get up to speed. So it was an important area of the pitch we needed to strengthen.

“Hopefully, we’ll be able to have one or two more in that area as well. And then, as we know, it’s a 38-game season and we’re going to need a lot of bodies, we’re going to need different options and we’re just trying to put ourselves in the best spot possible.”

Photo: Matchday Images