Ipswich Town take on Preston North End, at Deepdale, in their latest pre-season friendly tonight (7pm ko). Stuart Watson previews the action.

East Anglian Daily Times: Kyle Edwards (left) in pre-season action against Flyeralarm Admira.Kyle Edwards (left) in pre-season action against Flyeralarm Admira. (Image: Ross Halls)

PHASE TWO

Town players returned to training just over three weeks ago.

Pre-season started with wins against non-league sides Felixstowe & Walton (6-0) and Maidenhead United (2-1) on Suffolk soil. The Blues then spent last week at an Austrian training camp which concluded with games against Spartak Trnava (2-1) and Flyeralarm Admira (2-2).

Kieran McKenna considers that the end of phase one of preparations for 2023/24, with the games having been viewed as fitness exercises so far. Now his squad moves into phase two, with the focus switching to more of a tactical fine tune against higher level opposition.

Tonight, Town make the long joruney to Lancashire to face established Championship outfit Preston North End at Deepdale.

On Saturday, there will be games against Cambridge United and Stevenage. Next Tuesday night, it's newly-promoted Premier League outfit Luton Town (at Colchester). Next Friday, it's a return to Austria to face Bundesliga sides RB Leipzig and Werder Bremen in the Innsbruck Cup.

The big kick-off, at Sunderland, is just 18 days away.

East Anglian Daily Times: Preston North End have signed Will Keane from Wigan Athletic.Preston North End have signed Will Keane from Wigan Athletic. (Image: Preston North End FC)

THE OPPOSITION

Preston have been a solid midtable club in the Championship for the last eight seasons, finishing 11th, 11th, 7th, 14th, 9th, 13th, 13th and, most recently, 12th.

Manager Ryan Lowe was poached from Plymouth around the same time that Ipswich appointed Kieran McKenna.

The Lancashire club have seen four young loan players return to their Premier League parent clubs this summer in the form of Alvaro Fernandez (Man Utd), Liam Delap (Man City), Tom Cannon (Everton) and Troy Parrott (Tottenham), while the release of long-serving midfielder Daniel Johnson marks the end of an era at Deepdale.

Four players have arrived so this summer in the form of 19-year-old right-back Calvin Ramsey (Liverpool, loan), Danish midfielder Mads Frokjaer-Jensen (Odense, £1.2m), American midfielder Duane Holmes (Huddersfield, undisclosed) and, most interestingly of all from an Ipswich perspective, striker Will Keane (Wigan, nominal).

Keane, 30, scored six goals in 34 appearances for Ipswich between January 2019 and the summer of 2020 before going on to score 48 times in three seasons for the Latics.

East Anglian Daily Times: Ipswich Town manager Kieran McKenna, pictured after his side's 2-2 draw against Austrian side Flyeralarm Admira.Ipswich Town manager Kieran McKenna, pictured after his side's 2-2 draw against Austrian side Flyeralarm Admira. (Image: Ross Halls)

MCKENNA'S THOUGHTS

“Preston will be a big step up and back to a more familiar environment to what we’ll face this year in terms of climate, pitch and everything like that," said Blues boss McKenna, speaking after Saturday's game in a sweltering Vienna.

“It’s still too early to say that it’s a marker or anything but it will be a good test, a good step up for us. We’ll utilise the whole squad again for the minutes."

East Anglian Daily Times: New Ipswich Town signing George Hirst is set for his first pre-season outing this evening.New Ipswich Town signing George Hirst is set for his first pre-season outing this evening. (Image: Richard Calver/Matchday Images)

WHO WILL PLAY?

George Hirst didn't join the squad in Austria last week after completing a £1.5m switch from Leicester. Tonight will therefore be his first run-out of pre-season. He and Freddie Ladapo (four goals in three friendlies so far) are likely to get a half each.

Hirst went into last season a little cold, so hopefully he can get up to speed sooner rather than later. Scoring against a Championship club tonight would be a good confidence booster considering he didn't manage that with Rotherham or Blackburn.

It remains to be seen if George Edmundson (ankle), Wes Burns (calf) and Janoi Donacien (unknown) are deemed fit enough to feature tonight.

If Edmundson is unavailable we're likely to see Dominic Ball and possibly Lee Evans fill in at centre-back again.

No Burns would probably mean Kayden Jackson getting some minutes out on the right wing (a role he did well in last season).

Academy players Harry and Finley Barbrook, Ryan Carr, Rio Morgan and Leon Ayinde have all been handed minutes in the early stages of pre-season. Is this the stage of the summer where McKenna starts to focus solely on senior players? We'll see.

Tactically, it will be interesting to see if Town continue to experiment with left-back Leif Davis playing as an inverted full-back and how much licence new boy Jack Taylor has to get forwards from deep.