With two weeks to the start of the Sky Bet Championship season Sergej Jakirovićs men know they still have work to do to ensure they are ready to take on Coventry City on the opening day.

With the EFL transfer restrictions been the topic of pre season and with no new additions since the restrictions as of yet as the signings of Gustavo Puerta and Reda Laalaoui been reported as not been able to be registered then its basically as we were last year in terms of who will take the field in Cheshire on Saturday. There will be a couple new faces with Dillon Phillips who came in as a free agent along with Cathal McCarthy who signed in January but stayed on loan in Ireland at UCD AFC. Another different face that will be seen is ex Liverpool and Newcastle United midfielder Jonjo Shelvey who has been on trial and travelled to the clubs training camp in Turkey.

So far, the results have been very good, first up was a behind closed doors match with Lincoln City at the training ground which ended up with a 2-0 victory for the Imps. Following this Grimsby Town headed to Cottingham and a Tyrell Sellars-Fleming strike saw off the Mariners by a goal to nil.

The came the trip to Riva in Istanbul the headquarters of the Turkish FA and during the week stay The Tigers took on İstanbulspor and managed to claim a 2-1 victory with goals from Kyle Joseph and Pharrell Brown. The final game of the trip saw them take on former manager Shota Arveladze’s Kasımpaşa S.K. and another goal from Sellars-Fleming claimed a 1-0 victory.

So onto Saturday and its eighteen years since City last took on County in a 2007 friendly with a 2-2 draw in front of 1832 at Edgeley Park with Goals from Nick Barmby and Ian Ashbee.

Following Saturday we will welcome Sunderland to the MKM on Tuesday and Getafe the following Saturday before the big kick off in Warwickshire.