THE new football season gets into gear this week with Ipswich Town knowing their first round Carling Cup opponents tomorrow and their full Coca-Cola Championship fixture list on Wednesday.

Elvin King

THE new football season gets into gear this week with Ipswich Town knowing their first round Carling Cup opponents tomorrow and their full Coca-Cola Championship fixture list on Wednesday.

Players have started to report back to Playford Road after their holidays to begin preparation work for the 2009/10 campaign and manager Roy Keane and his staff are continuing to monitor players with a view to strengthening the Blues squad.

Official pre-season training does not start for over two weeks with Town still to finalise their final programme of summer friendlies.

Ipswich will be seeded for the Carling Cup draw and will meet one of the following unseeded sides from the south section: Bournemouth, Aldershot, Barnet, Brentford, Brighton, Burton, Cheltenham, Dagenham, Exeter, Gillingham, Hereford, Leyton Orient, Northampton, Shrewsbury, Swindon, Torquay, Wycombe, Yeovil.

Games will be played in the week commencing August 10.

Last season Town beat Leyton Orient 4-1 and Colchester United 2-1 both at home before losing 4-1 at Portman Road in the third round to Premier League Wigan.

When the Football league issue their fixtures on Wednesday there will be no Norwich City derby to look out for, but the two matches against Jim Magilton's QPR will be keenly noted as will the fixtures against relegated Newcastle, Middlesbrough and West Brom.

Over the weekend Ipswich were again linked with Liverpool striker David Ngog, who the Blues are reported to have watched in a recent Under-21 tournament in France. The Reds are believed to be happy for the French player to go out on a season-long loan and gain first team experience.

Chilean Eduardo Vargas, 19, is also still being linked after he did well in the Toulon tournament.