Town's Reserves lost to a strong Spurs side which included Gary Doherty, Milenko Acimovic and Mbulelo Mabizela. Town's side contained Alun Armstrong, Martijn Reuser and Dean Bowditch but had a very youthful looking bench.

The first action was in the second minute when an inviting Dean Marney cross was headed just inches wide by Lee Barnard.

On ten minutes, a Barnard shot was too hot to handle for Shane Supple in the town goal, but Chris Hogg hoofed the ball away from danger.

On 17 minutes, Spurs opened the scoring. Marney's low cross was well controlled by Barnard, he was allowed space in which to turn, and beat Supple, in for Lewis Price missing one game after his red card against Portsmouth's reserves.

In the 25th minute, Acimovic and Marney switched play from left to right and Acimovic's cross was volleyed just over the bar by Dean Marney.

In the 30th minute, Alun Armstrong toe-poked a
Abidallah cross wide, goalkeeper Rob Burch doing enough to put him off.

A minute later, Armstrong was helped off by physio Matt Byard and was replaced by Daniel Flack. Armstrong had a bad cut to the leg and was taken to hospital to have the wound cleaned.

In first-half injury time, Acimovic teed up Barnard who flashed just over from 20 yards.

The second-half began with Barnard having another shot which was tipped just wide by Supple.

Two minutes later, Barnard had a 25-yard shot which Supple did well to take considering it bounced just in front of him.

On 51 minutes, Jamie Slabber got put through, but again Supple saved Ipswich, diving at the feet of the striker.

The next action was on 62 minutes when Nabil Abidallah had a 25-yard shot which was spectacularly saved by Burch.

On 68 minutes, Chris Hogg got beaten by some good foot-work by Barnard, but he dragged his shot wide. A minute later, Spurs doubled their lead.

A Marney volley was turned in by Barnard after some pretty poor defending from the young Town defence.

On 76 minutes, Mabizela won a header from a Jamie O'Hara free-kick but Irish international Gary Doherty couldn't convert from close-range.

On 85 minutes, O'Hara had a 30-yard-shot which Peat watched fly just past his post.

Soon after, Reuser had a snap-shot which went straight at Burch.

In the 92nd minute, Slabber made the score 3-0 with a glancing header from ten yards out.

Spurs: Rob Burch, Mbulelo Mabizela, Marcel McKie, Gary Doherty, Dean Marney, Mark Hughes, Jamie O'Hara, Milenko Acimovic, Lee Barnard (Michael Malcolm 80), Jamie Slabber. Unused subs: Nicky Eyre (GK), Danny Foster, Paul O'Donoghue, Kieran McKenna. Booked: Mark Hughes

Town: Shane Supple, Scott Mitchell, Scott Barron, Matt Bloomfield (Michael Synnott 82), Chris Hogg, Aidan Collins, Nabil Abidallah (Liam Craig 82), Martijn Reuser, Alun Armstrong (Daniel Flack 31), Dean Bowditch, Sam Morrow. Unused: Scott Peat, Liam Manning.

Thanks to Tractor Boy for the report.

Photo: Action Images

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