Peterborough v Ipswich TownPRE-season games are usually a means to an end in terms of building match fitness for most players.But for 18-year-old Scott Barron his Ipswich Town first-team debut at Peterborough today is far from a meaningless run out.

Peterborough v Ipswich Town

PRE-season games are usually a means to an end in terms of building match fitness for most players.

But for 18-year-old Scott Barron his Ipswich Town first-team debut at Peterborough today is far from a meaningless run out.

For him it is a chance to push his way into manager Joe Royle's plans for the upcoming season - and he is determined to seize the day.

"They say pre-season is more about match fitness but for players like me it is more than that. You need to catch the manager's eye and show you are worth a chance. I'm sure there will be Peterborough players thinking the same and that will make it competitive.

"The senior players have already proved themselves and so these games are not so important but for me it is a chance to show I can step up a level."

Barron was named in the first-team squad a few times in the latter part of last season but only made the bench as an unused substitute once, in the 3-1 win at Walsall on March 16.

Now he is part of an 18-man party going to Peterborough in a new slim-line Ipswich squad.

The full-back, who can also play on the left-side of midfield and in the centre, said: "I'm really excited about being involved. This is the first real chance to show what I can do.

"The other times I have only been in the squad because of injuries. I know the squad is smaller now but I feel I'm in it on merit and have a realistic chance of playing.

"It is a bit daunting and I feel nervous but in a good way. I feel a real part of the first-team squad now as I have trained with them, done everything they have and I feel one of them.

"It will be good to play alongside the likes of Jim Magilton, for example."

The former St Ives schoolboy, who was discovered by Academy coach Kevin Ellis and recruited by Malcolm Moore, has come through the ranks with Scott Mitchell - who made his debut at Derby last season and made another brief apearance at home against Watford when a third member of that year's intake, Dean Bowditch, scored a hat-trick on his full home bow.

As eager as Barron is to take the next step and join his contemporaries he knows he still has some way to go.

He said: "I'm ready to be patient and wait for the chance. If I had been training with the first team regularly up to Christmas I would probably be less patient and want to be playing.

"But at the moment I have not done anything. I have shown what I can in training but I have not played matches to prove my worth and until I do that I need to wait."

While many players needed to watch their weight during the summer break, Barron's summer programme included eating plenty and pumping iron.

He said: "I put on half a stone but with all the running we have done in the last couple of weeks it has probably gone, unfortunately. I need to build myself up and be stronger and I'm working on that."

Barron will make his debut alongside Canadian international Jason De Vos while Tommy Miller is the only senior player missing as he recovers from jaw surgery.

Ipswich Town (from): Davis, Price, Barron, Wilnis, Richards, De Vos, Diallo, Horlock, Santos, Naylor, Murray, Magilton, Westlake, Kuqi, Bent, Counago and Bowditch.

derek.davis@eadt.co.uk