Chris Hogg has confirmed Cobblers will play two separate XIs in Saturday’s opening pre-season friendly against Leicester City (12pm kick-off).

Town’s squad have been put through their paces in the sweltering heat at Moulton over the last two weeks and tomorrow represents a first opportunity to test themselves against serious opposition in the form of Russell Martin’s Foxes. Leicester, who are now in League One following successive relegations, will host the behind closed doors friendly at their training ground.

"No doubt there will be a lot of leg work for us,” said Hogg. “I know Russell Martin and I know how his teams like to play. We’re really looking forward to it because it ties in nicely with our periodisation for our tactical plan.

"We know we will have to put a lot of the work we’ve done in these first 10 days or so into practice in a match situation in terms of our out of possession work. That’s been our focus. We know it won’t be perfect but it’ll be good to see the boys have to problem solve because they’ll need to overcome certain challenges on the pitch.

"I also want to see the boys express themselves on the ball and play to some of the structures that we’ve touched on. It’s a good first test for us but it’s just important for the players to get through 45 minutes so they get in the amount of work they need.

"We’ll break it up so there’ll be two teams for each half. We’ll take plenty of players and it’ll be a mix. It will be nice to see the boys in a live scenario but for me pre-season is about learning and I’m learning what the players are capable of very quickly.

"We need to get ourselves in the best possible shape for the first game of the season.”