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.