BRIGHTLINGSEA Regent boss Tom Rothery says he and his players are relishing the challenge of taking on professional opposition this weekend.

The R's begin their pre-season campaign with an eye-catching fixture against an Ipswich Town XI, on Saturday (kick-off 3pm).

Town's first team are in action at Braintree Town so it is expected to be a young, largely under-23 side that visits the Taydal Stadium.

Nevertheless, Rothery believes it will be a special occasion and is looking forward to seeing how his players cope against the cream of Ipswich's famed Academy.

"It's going to be a great day for our club," he said.

"It's not every day you get to test yourself against professional players, albeit younger ones, and it's clearly going to be a real challenge.

"It can only be positive, though, and we're looking forward to pitting ourselves against them.

"The most important thing will be seeing where we're at fitness-wise and also seeing how relationships and partnerships are forming.

"We only started working on shape on Tuesday night.

"Prior to that it had all been fitness and ball work and it's still early days, so this game will be an interesting yardstick."

Rothery will be without unavailable trio Matt Cripps, Josh Gould and Jake Turner.

The latter has been training but is now out of the equation until the end of the month, for personal reasons.

Rothery is hoping for a positive result this weekend but, with the bigger picture in mind, believes the score is incidental.

"I'm a bit of an all or nothing person and like being competitive in every game," he said.

"But the reality is that results aren't that important in pre-season, especially early on.

"Fitness is everything, in addition to seeing how relationships and partnerships are developing on the pitch.

"I never read too much into pre-season results because I've had years where my team have been brilliant in friendlies, then started the season badly.

"And there have been other years when we've been terrible in friendlies but started the season strongly.

"Obviously you want to build up confidence and momentum but sometimes when results don't go your way, it allows you to be a bit more subjective and identify weaknesses and spot areas that need tightening up."

Brightlingsea's next friendly is against Brantham Athletic, next Tuesday.

The match is being played at Lawford Lads' ground, kicking-off at 7pm.