Town ran out 5-1 winners at the Broadfield Stadium against Blue Square Premier League outfit Crawley Town. A hat-trick from Tommy Miller and two from Alan Lee saw off Crawley in a fairly bad-tempered clash.
The Blues lined up with the two new trialists both starting, Arsène Menessou at right-back and César Navas partnering Alex Bruce at centre-back. Summer signings Neil Alexander, Tommy Miller and Pablo Couñago all made their first starts since signing and Jaime Peters also returned to play his first pre-season game for the Blues after returning from Canada at the weekend.
The game had a slow start to it, though Crawley set the tempo with a number of nasty looking tackles, particularly on Alex Bruce who made his point known to the aggressors. Town's first real shot of any note came on 29 minutes when Alan Lee headed over from a Roberts cross.
On 32 Gary Roberts went close after some good work from Pablo Couñago. However, 10 minutes later Town were in front when Tommy Miller scored direct from a fre kick to the keeper's right.
Town went in at the half-time break leading, however ,the first half was pretty uneventful and for the first 20 minutes or so Crawley were on top.
The Blues came out for the second half unchanged and shortly afterwards Alexander pulled off a good save to deny Crawley an equaliser. In the 53rd minute more good work from Pablo set up Tommy Miller and he side-footed home for a 2-0 lead.
In the 58th minute, Crawley's Jamie Cook lost the Town defence and rounded Alexander which led to Cook falling to the ground. It appeared Alexander had got the ball first but the linesman decided otherwise and gave the penalty.
Alexander was furious with the linesman and sprinted over to him arguing his corner. Guy Madjo scored from the spot and Alexander continued his protests in vain before being replaced by Shane Supple. At this point, Jim Magilton made a number of changes, while Alexander argued with the fourth official, this resulted in the referee ordering him from the dug-out to the changing rooms, although no red card was shown.
Pablo was once again causing the Crawley defenders some difficulty resulting him falling to the floor on the edge of the box on 63 minutes. The ref harshly awarded a penalty which Miller converted to seal his hat-trick.
Alan Lee drove home number four for Town after being set up by Pablo and side-footed number five on 73. However, one minute later Owen Garvan's turbulent summer got worse when he was ordered from the pitch by the awful referee. Like Alexander, Garvan, was not shown a red card, but unfortunately Town had already used all their subs and Garvan could not be replaced, leaving the Blues with 10 men. No other incidents occurred after this and Town went in 5-1 winners.
All in all a good work out for the Blues. Both trialists had steady if unspectacular games, Navas went off injured and looked worthy of another outing with Menessou not looking any better than what we already have.
Alexander's communication with his defence was good and Alex Bruce in particular was outstanding. Tommy Miller showed why Jim Magilton was so keen to bring him back to Portman Road with three goals including a trademark penalty, while Pablo was effective in playing a part in four of Town's goals.
Town: Alexander (Supple 64), Menessou (Synnott 72), Wilnis (C), T.Miller (Walters 64), Bruce, Navas (Harding 64), Peters (O'Callaghan 64), Legwinski (Garvan 62), Couñago (Clarke 69), Lee, Roberts. Att: 1,043.
Thanks to TWTD Message Boarder Uhlenbeek for the report.
Get the fastest and most comprehensive Ipswich Town news service at ipswichtown.footballlatest.co.uk.