Sam Saunders is looking to pit his wits against one of his best mates in football in Ipswich's Jonathan Douglas.

The pair lived together during the Irishman's time at Brentford and still see each other after Douglas departed last summer after falling out with the club's hierarchy.

And Saunders is looking forward to taking him on and claiming the bragging rights.

He said: “We’ve been having some friendly banter. I’m looking forward to facing him. It’d be nice to be involved there and play against him.

Good mate: Jonathan Douglas

“He’s one of my best mates in football. Hopefully we can have bragging rights over him in the summer. I still see him here and there. He’s one of my real football mates.

“People say there’s no friendships in football but in this case it is.

“We’ll be friends for a long time. I was gutted to see him leave but that’s football.”

Head coach Dean Smith was full of praise for the former Bee and knows he will be a tough nut to crack.

He added: “Whenever we played Brentford, we felt he was the cog in their machine. He's an intelligent football. We've got a lot of respect for him but we're trying to win the game.”