Mick McCarthy said he was pleased with the performance of his two Ipswich Town teams after his side beat Peterborough United over four quarters of football.
The 120-match saw Ipswich run out 3-1 winners with a brace from Joe Garner and one for David McGoldrick — after Town old boy Jack Marriott had opened the scoring for Posh.
All the goals came in the first half of 60 minutes, but McCarthy was left perplexed that his side didn’t win more comfortably after largely dominating quarters three and four.
And the Town boss admitted he was still looking for new signings after a match that saw Bersant Celina and Dominic Iorfa make their Ipswich bow.
Summing up the match, McCarthy said: "It was different, but I think it’s a good idea.
"Ordinarily I’d have played a team for 60 minutes and another team for 30 minutes, but then the team that’s on for 30 minutes always thinks they’re the subs.
"It was a good way of doing it. I enjoyed tonight. How it’s only ended up three after that second half is beyond me.
"Strikers want to score. Freddie [Sears] was brilliant second half without getting one, Didzy [David McGoldrick] got his and I’m sure Joe [Garner] will be delighted to get two more.”
When quizzed on the likelihood of new signings, after missing out on striker Jon Dadi Bodvarsson, McCarthy added: "I’m delighted what we have done so far, but we’re still looking for players.
"He’s [Bodvarsson] gone to Reading for three million quid or something. I thought we had him coming on loan, but he’s gone there.”
McCarthy praised the performance of a number of his youngsters at the ABAX Stadium — Flynn Downes and Tristan Nydam were mentioned by the manager on more than one occasion during his post-match assessment - while he was equally pleased with the contribution of Celina and Iorfa.
Of the new boys, he said: "That’s not a true reflection of what they are. Dominic has only just arrived and Bersant hasn’t been able to train much [due to illness], but I was happy enough with them tonight. They’ve got more in them.
"I took Dominic off. He said he was ok, but sometimes common sense prevails. It would have been worse if he stayed on and something happened to him.
"Flynn Downes and Tristan [Nydam] were excellent, Ben Morris grew into the game, I was pleased with Conor [McKendry] and it was nice to see Bish [Teddy Bishop] get through 60 minutes.
"I can’t say anyone left me thinking ‘they won’t be involved again’. Most of them really impressed me. We played really well.”
McCarthy revealed that Bartosz Bialkowski was missing due to a stomach bug while Emyr Huws has a sore calf.
Adam Webster’s bad ankle meant he was also absent but the defender should return to training later this week and be in contention for Saturday’s friendly at Gillingham.
The Ipswich manager also revealed he was hoping to have a squad of around 24 players next season with Adam McDonnell one young player who is set to go out on loan.
"We’ll have about 22 to 24 maybe,” said McCarthy. "That will probably include Dozza [Andre Dozzell], Tristan [Nydam] and Flynn Downes.
"I get sick of seeing our programme with 40 players because we haven’t got 40 players. Everybody who’s ever had a squad number seems to get listed for us.
"We’ll have 22 or so players this season and they’ll all be first team players, as well as the likes of Tristan and Dozza, who really is a first-team player and comes back after a really good summer with England, and Flynn.
"I don’t want a massive 30 to 35-man squad. We had a lot of injuries last year — Bish, Giles Coke, Didzy — so we had to get other players in.
"But I don’t like taking players away from home who have to sit in the stand. You really want everyone to feel involved.”