Depoitre putting

TOWN have been training in Austria over the weekend and are preparing for tomorrow’s friendly against FC Bologna.

David Wagner and the squad flew from Leeds Bradford to Innsbruck and are based at Kirchberg in the Tirol.

They had a light session at the training base at Brixen Im Thale, with John Iga, Mark Armitage and Callum Adams conducting the warm-up, before first-team coach Andrew Hughes put on some passing and control drills.

Delighted by the performance in the 3-1 win over Olympique Lyonnais, Wagner will be hoping to see further improvement against Bologna and RB Leipzig, who Town play on Friday.

Bologna, now managed by Filippo Inzaghi, were 15th in Serie A last season, when their top scorer was Italian international Simone Verdi.

He netted 10 goals in 34 league appearances, but he was bought by Napoli earlier in the summer.

Next up was Mattia Destro, who bagged six league goals, while Rodrigo Palacio scored four.

Destro would be the likeliest to take over from Verdi as Bologna’s main goal-scoring threat, having bagged 66 Serie A goals in his eight seasons in the top flight.

The 27-year-old began his career at Genoa before moving to Siena, Roma and AC Milan on loan.

He was bought by Bologna from Roma in 2015 and made eight caps for Italy between 2012 and 2014. AFC Emley host Pontefract Collieries at the Fantastic Media Welfare Ground on Thursday – buoyed by a 3-2 victory over a young Town side.

Goals from Ruben Jerome, Ben Burnett and captain James Stafford gave Emley a first pre-season win over any Town side since 2012.

Town sent a mainly Under 17 team for the match.

Emley now host Pontefract (7.30) on Thursday in their final friendly before the Northern Counties East League season.

The match will be free entry and will be played in three 30-minute periods. Laurent Depoitre eagerly puts pressure on the Lyon defence during last week’s 3-1 win over the French side at the John Smith’s Stadium