RIDGEONS League Leiston celebrate their promotion to the Premier Division with a prestige friendly against an Ipswich Town XI at Victory Road tonight (7.

RIDGEONS League Leiston celebrate their promotion to the Premier Division with a prestige friendly against an Ipswich Town XI at Victory Road tonight (7.30pm kick-off).

With Town's first-team squad currently in Denmark with manager Joe Royle and coach Steve McCall, the home-grown Ipswich squad is in the capable hands of Academy director Bryan Klug.

The squad includes Bontcho Guentchev's teenage son Lubomir, a Bulgarian youth international, who is training with Ipswich.

Guentchev senior, who represented his country in the World Cup, was a popular striker with Town fans under John Lyall and now runs a restaurant in London. He still represents Ipswich in Masters tournaments. His son is also a left-sided striker.

This is a big year for senior Academy players like Danny Flack, Liam Manning and Aidan Collins with the opportunity of regular reserve-team football and a chance to push on towards the first team.

Klug said: "We will have a very young team at Leiston, including strikers like Billy Clarke and Darryl Knights who have just turned 16.

"Training is going well. They have been working hard for two to three weeks now and we don't have any injuries.

"Our next game is a reserve game against Barnet and the under-18s will play at Southwold on Friday, July 30.

"We are hoping a lot of these lads will be in the reserve team on a regular basis next season.

"After tonight the lads will have a long weekend off and the Irish and Scots lads can get home for a few days."

The Leiston squad includes former Town Academy keeper Scott Peat, playing against some of his former team-mates, as well as Lee McGlone and the George brothers who came through the youth scheme at Ipswich Wanderers.

Tonight's squads

Leiston: Peat, Rose, Challis, Wright, Donald George, Sparkes, Goddard, Andrews, White, Jennings, K Horner, R Horner, Day, Spurling, Whatling, Saker, Taylor, C Chenery, Danny George, Fryer, J Chenery and McGlone.

Ipswich Town Reserves: Supple, Hogg, Collins, Patten, Craig, Flack, Manning, Garvan, Boardley, Knights, Clarke, Sobers, Lordan, Krause, Beveridge, Synnott, Hammond and Guentchev.

Admission at Victory Roads is £4 for adults, £2 for concessions.