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Barnet 0-1 Ipswich Town - Match Report - Ipswich Town News

A second-half goal from Myles Kenlock was enough for Ipswich Town to record a 1-0 win over National League Barnet at the Hive.

Paul Hurst kept faith with seven of the 11 players who started earlier in the week at Crawley Town, with Josh Emmanuel, Flynn Downes and Jordan Roberts also starting.

Following his exploits in Russia for Poland at the World Cup, and having signed a three-year deal to keep him at Portman Road, Bartosz Bialkowski made his first start for Town in pre-season.

The last time Barnet met Ipswich was in another pre-season friendly in 2016, with Town ending up on the wrong end of a penalty by the now-departed John Akinde.

Barnet made a change after just four minutes, when Craig Robson left the field in discomfort, to be replaced by Dan Sweeney.

The enforced early change did not have much effect on the way Town started, with Emmanuel looking to get crosses in from the right hand side.

Freddie Sears was the central striker, with Cole Skuse and Downes behind Roberts, Martyn Waghorn and the goalscorer on Tuesday, Grant Ward.

The first incident fell to the hosts, after Luke Chambers gifted the ball to a Barnet trialist but, to the relief of Town, his aim past Bialkowski went wide of the left-hand upright.

Given the sweltering conditions at the Hive, it might not have been a surprise that the next came about because of poor distribution, but it was Ipswich who benefited on 17 minutes.

Roberts picked up a loose pass from Barnet, but was unable to direct his shot from the edge of the box past goalkeeper Mark Cousins.

Chances continued to be few and far between, with the north London outfit looking slightly more energetic than their Championship opponents.

After counting himself unlucky not to find the scoresheet against Crawley, Waghorn came close again four minutes before the break, with a freekick from close to 25 yards out whistling narrowly wide.

Paul Hurst made three substitutions at the break, with Gwion Edwards, Tristan Nydam and Andre Dozzell replacing Downes, Ward and Sears, although Barnet still continued to press and find space.

The first chance of the second half for Town fell to Waghorn just before the hour mark. His freekick from near the left hand corner flag was crossed into the box with pace, and appeared to head directly for the top right hand corner, but Cousins was able to palm away his effort for a corner.

Having been a spectator for the most part, Biakowski was replaced on the hour mark by Dean Gerken.

The deadlock was finally broken on 68 minutes with a fine move involving Edwards, who was able to feed through Kenlock who was powering through into the box. He drove his effort low past the left of Cousins to give Town the lead in a game they had laboured in.

Taking the lead appeared to give the visitors a lift, looking more energetic and sharper in their all-round play.

A final set of substitutions were made on 72 minutes, with Jordan Spence, Ben Folami, Corrie Ndaba and Bailey Clements - the latter duo making their first appearances in the senior side - taking over from for Roberts, Luke Chambers, Emmanuel and Kenlock.

After Nbada recovered well to prevent Dave Tarpey from getting in on goal late on, Ipswich were able to leave north London with their second victory in a week.

Barnet: Cousins (Trialist 84), Alexander, Reynolds, Robson (Sweeney 5), Adams, Sparkes (Kyei 77), J Taylor (Coulthirst 60), Fonguck (Boucaud 74), Trialist (Mason-Clark 64), Trialist (Tarpey 60), Payne. Unused: Johnson.

Town: Bialkowski (Gerken 60), Emmanuel (Ndaba), Kenlock (Clements 72), Chambers (Folami 72), Woolfenden, Downes (Edwards 46), Skuse, Waghorn, Roberts (Spence 72), Ward (Nydam 46), Sears (Dozzell 46). Att: 922.

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