An excellent team performance from Town's youngsters saw them defeat Youth Cup holders and league leaders Arsenal 2-0 at Underhill. Two fine goals in the first 12 minutes from Ronan Murray and Connor Wickham, witnessed by a crowd of 600 including Roy Keane and his backroom staff, eased Chris Kiwomya's impressive outfit to a home clash with Fulham in the fifth round.

Town could have been one up through Ronan Murray early on but in the 10th minutes the slippery Irishman did get on the scoresheet, netting clinically past Arsenal keeper James Dunn later thanks to a wonderful pass from midfielder Billy Clark.

Two minutes later, Connor Wickham, whose name had been left off the teamsheet due to his inclusion having been in doubt due to a knock, was sent through one-on-one by a long-range curving pass from the outstanding Clark, which the Colchester-born youngster buried with some aplomb to put the visitors two up.

The visibly shocked hosts had been blown away by a fantastic start to the tie by Town, who proceeded to dominate the opening 30 minutes with some intricate passing and tigerish tackling.

Only when Clark succumbed to a muscle strain, and had to be substituted, did Arsenal get back into the game, although Blues keeper Mirko Ranieri, on-loan from Arsenal’s great foes Tottenham, only had one save to make, which he made comfortably from a Luke Freeman header.

Arsenal, sent out early for the second period after a blast from home boss Steve Bould, attempted to boss their way back into the game through the influential reserve team regular Emmanuel Frimpong and enjoyed constant possession of the ball whilst pressing down the famous Underhill slope.

However, a magnificent defensive display led by the superb Tom Eastman, saw Town soak up the bombardment before Town should have put the tie out of sight on the hour when Wickham pulled a gilt-edged chance wide of the post.

The hosts became increasingly frustrated as Chris Kiwomya's side stuck brilliantly to a tactical masterplan, repelling the hosts time and time again whilst looking to catch the North London side on the break.

Indeed, the loudest cheer the home support made in the last 20 minutes of the match was afforded to the follically challenged linesman David Aylott, who stumbled backwards Paul Alcock style into the snow-clad perimeter track under pressure from Wickham.

So, a fine performance from the youngsters sees them march on majestically to a fifth round tie at Portman Road against the Cottagers which will be played at Portman Road on a date to be set before January 30th and complete a hat-trick of victories over their hosts this season.

A true team performance, led by man-of-the-match centre back and David Linighan look-a-like Tom Eastman, was enjoyed by a visibly delighted Roy Keane and an encouraging number of Blues supporters.

U18s: Ranieri, Bennett, Dunbar, Meekings, Eastman, Hyam, Clark (Griffiths 33), Cawley, Wickham, Murray (Lavery 73), Carson. Unused: Brandon, Winstone, McKeown.

Thanks to Dan Botten for the report. Dan is the author of Ipswich Town Miscellany and Ipswich Town: On This Day.

Photo: Action Images

nysully added 20:52 - Jan 19 another Billy Clarke injured on the way to an FA Youth Cup winning team?
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tractorgirls added 20:54 - Jan 19 Well done boys, I'd give you all free memberships to tractorgirls but you are just too young! ;)
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O2BITFC added 20:54 - Jan 19 Fantastic result by the youngsters COYB
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jas0999 added 20:55 - Jan 19 Well done boys! Excellent result.
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WREXHAM_BLUE added 20:55 - Jan 19 Great win! Excellent text commentary too on the Arsenal website. Roll on Fulham!!
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Liverpool_blu added 20:57 - Jan 19 well done boys. well done. bring on fulham.
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devontractorboy added 20:59 - Jan 19 Wooooooooooohooooooooooo!!!
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Liverpool_blu added 21:00 - Jan 19 billy clarke and ronan murray future 1st teamers
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tractorboynick added 21:05 - Jan 19 Well done Ipswich Town for another fantastic reason for the Ipswich Academy to continue and just goes to show that a team such as Ipswich can still produce a great crop of youngsters through well done and bring on the Fulham maybe a night time game at portman road with the stadium opened with £1 a ticket for all ?
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HighSeasBlue added 21:10 - Jan 19 Good effort, be good to see a big turn out for the home match V Fulham. Hopefully the senior team will do the job in the cup on Sat as well!
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Franzgumm added 21:11 - Jan 19 Great performance. Just on the way back on the Northern Line. We were excellent first half, with two clinical finishes. Clark looked very good before going off and Eastman and Ranieri were the pick after that. Good turnout from the Town massive too. Splendid stuff.
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Oxblue added 21:12 - Jan 19 Well done boys!
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TractorBeezer added 21:12 - Jan 19 Well done lads. Hope that you thump Fulham. Mace the Ace, Fulham supporter, is trembling in his boots!
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utrechtblue added 21:18 - Jan 19 Very pleasing, the youth are the future , can the seniors start a cup run on Saturday too. Heres hoping then our cups will runneth over. Ill get me coat
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swifty added 21:30 - Jan 19 I was there and we were awesome. Large town following well done boys.
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raycrawfordswig added 21:38 - Jan 19 Great result ,good following .
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hampstead_blue added 21:42 - Jan 19 Just got in from the game.....Awesome! MOTM; Tom Eastman. Nothing was getting past him tonight.
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SouperJim added 21:42 - Jan 19 Great stuff, one hand on the cup?
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MVBlue added 22:24 - Jan 19 Hands off my double-decker Yanks
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bluepeter added 22:37 - Jan 19 tractorgirls am I old enough?
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N4_Blue added 23:11 - Jan 19 Good report that Dan. Wickham worked his socks off up front all night and looked head and shoulders above the rest. Eastman the next Terry Butcher and Clark looked class before going off injured. Very good team effort and pleasing to see the future is bright. Kiwomyyyyyaaaa my lord ....
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biggerblue added 23:26 - Jan 19 Great game tonight !! Thought Wickham killed them in the first half, with his goal and his team play of passing and flicks was excellent, stood out for me the first half, head and shoulders above!! Second half was oooh my god hard to watch ! not in a bad way, but we sat back on the 2 goal lead and defended very very well, Eastman the standout player for the blues. A different half showing our defending power with Wickham left on his own up front, but Wickham had the chance to finish it off but as reported, he smashed it just wide, apart from that blues had no other chances as we just defended outstandingly ! WELL DONE THE TEAM a great performance !!!!!

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el_nino added 23:41 - Jan 19 Tom Eastman is a David Linighan lookalike? Poor lad.....
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MaySixth added 23:51 - Jan 19 His nickname is Granddad
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RainhamBlue1 added 00:15 - Jan 20 I was at the game, was very impressed! Thought eastman was a colosuss at the back, and hyam brilliant in midfield.
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