Cobblers to play Birmingham City youngsters as part of Spanish traning camp

The game will be played on the final evening of the trip on Friday, July 14, with the squad returning to Northampton the following day.

The match will be free to attend for all Cobblers supprters who make the trip to the Oliva Nova complex, which is where the squad will be working throughout the week.

Birmingham’s youngsters, who are managed by Richare Beale, are also using the complex at the same time.

Olivia Nova is situated about 100km north of Alicante airport, and the club will also be staging an open training session on Thursday, July 13, which will again be free for travelling supporters to attend.

The training session will be followed by a BBQ, where fans will be able meet and mingle with the Cobblers players and club staff.

“We are looking forward to that trip, time away at a training camp where we can spend time as a squad 24 hours a day is a real valuable asset to a squad that is going to have a lot of new faces in it,” said Town boss Justin Edinburgh.

“It allows us to really get the squad together, and live in each other’s pockets for a period of time, and I think there is a real importance to that.

“Partnerships, trust and understandings can be built, and it allows the players to spend plenty of time working hard during the week, using the different facilities we will have at our disposal.

“The open training session and BBQ should be a great event and will hopefully form a great bond between the fans and the players.

“The game will then round off the week for us. It will be our second match of pre-season and at that stage it is still about building partnerships and understandings, and getting used to be being back out on the pitch.”

The Cobblers, who play their first pre-season friendly at UCL Premier Division side Sileby Rangers on Saturday, July 8, fly out to Alicante airport on the following day.

The match against Birmingham’s development team will kick-off at 6.30pm local time.