Saints to face Spurs XI tonight

12:10pm Wednesday 16th July 2008

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City boss Steve Castle will be looking for further signs of encouragement when his team face a Tottenham Hotspur XI at Clarence Park this evening, 7.45pm kick off.

Castle is expected to field a few more first team players than he did last night as City host Clive Allen’s Spurs fledglings keen to force their way into Juande Ramos’s thoughts in the near future.

Allen’s team could include French youth international defender Dorian Dervite, striker Andy Barcham, Spanish prospect Yuri Berchiche, former MK Dons loanee Jake Livermore, new Italian goalkeeper Mirko Ranieri, Norwegian hot-shot Alex Olsen and full back Cian Hughton, son of former Spurs hero Chris.

Said Allen: "It doesn't matter how much training you do in pre-season, you can never recreate the match situation and match conditioning,” said the former England international. “I'd say we have stiffer opposition this year than ever before. We start with St Albans City but go on to face strong Conference sides like Crawley and Rushden, and then league opposition in Aldershot.

"The boys know it's not all about results in pre-season - it's about performances. Over the last few years we've had good pre-season build-ups and it bodes well for the start of the season."