Town boss Mick McCarthy felt the Blues’ U21s put in their best performance of the season, despite being defeated 3-0 at home by Nottingham Forest earlier this afternoon. Wilfried Gnahore, James Thorne and Andreas Karo netted the Forest goals.
"It was a bit like the first team on Saturday," McCarthy said. "I thought we were great, the first half was the best the U21s have played, I thought we were excellent.
"We could have had three or four goals. They’re a big, powerful team, Forest. They played well and when they got the goal they sat back and we were trying to force it and we got done from three corner kicks.
"I thought we were excellent. I thought Kundai Benyu played well, James Blanchfield (pictured) was very good and Kyle Hammond playing wide right.
"It was a really good performance and yet we’ve been beaten 3-0. But it’s a development squad, not a results-based squad.”
The Blues - with no senior players involved - included 17-year-old Canadian striker Dario Zanatta in their starting line-up.
Zanatta joined the Vancouver Whitecaps youth set-up in 2011 and is a Canadian U18 international.
He is now looking for a club in Europe and recently spent time on trial with Swedish side IFK Göteborg.
U21s: Crowe, Emmanuel, Wyatt, Fowler, Robinson, Hammond, Benyu, Blanchfield, Patterson (McQueen), McLoughlin, Zanatta (Ramadan). Subs: Hayes, Kenlock, C Smith.