Ipswich Town boss Kieran McKenna was glad to get some good minutes into his players legs despite being beaten 2-1 by Fortuna Dusseldorf at Portman Road.
The Blues ramped up their pre-season preparations by facing their old friends from Germany, who took the lead thanks to Danny Schmidt's early goal.
First-half substitute Marcus Harness, who replaced the injured Wes Burns, equalised just two minutes into the second half, although Tim Roßmann's low strike handed the visitors the win in Suffolk.
“It was a useful workout," McKenna said after the game. "Of course, we didn’t play our best. I thought we had challenges with some of our pressing and off-the-ball stuff the whole game, but that can happen and it’s good for it to happen at this stage of the season.
“Of course, you don’t prep the game at this stage of the season as we would in the league campaign, so there were some organisational challenges – but there were also some individual and unit things for us to improve on against a side who played very, very well and are further along in their prep for us ahead of their league campaign starting next week.
Marcus Harness wasn't able to help the Blues avoid defeat at Portman Road (Image: Ross Halls)
“It was a useful workout, a really good challenge. It’s a shame about Wes’ ankle, so we’re waiting to see on that, but other than that there were lots of good minutes in the legs.”
It's important to stress that Fortuna Dusseldorf are much further along in their preparations, with their 2. Bundesliga campaign kicking off with a trip to Darmstadt next week.
Ipswich, on the other hand, have three weeks until they host Liverpool in their Premier League opener, which McKenna believes will be vital for his side.
“The Premier League starts later than most other leagues, so that’s the nature of the fixtures, which is only a positive for sure," he explained. "We still have a few weeks to go and we’re going to need the few weeks in all aspects.
“We were playing a team who are a good side, who were very close to getting promoted themselves last year and came ready for the league next week. That was a really good challenge for us and I think the boys felt that. It was a tough game.”
The game also presented new signings Ben Johnson, Jacob Greaves, Liam Delap and Arijanet Muric with their first minutes at Portman Road. The quartet impressed, and the experience of playing in front of supporters with their new team-mates will be a big help ahead of the upcoming campaign.
“We wanted to put all four of the boys who haven’t played here before into the starting lineup today to get them acclimatised as soon as possible," McKenna revealed. "That’s by playing at the stadium, first and foremost, but certainly in Jacob, Liam and Aro’s cases, they haven’t had as many minutes with the group.
Jacob Greaves started the game alongside George Edmundson (Image: Ross Halls)
“We wanted to throw them all in today. We always knew that there were going to be little bits of understanding of wave-length issues, but that’s natural when players come in, so we’ll work on that.
“There were some good things in the performance from those boys and some good things from the boys who’ve been here, and there’s some things for everyone to work on. That’s pretty normal at this stage of the year.”
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