Town find themselves behind at the interval in their pre-season friendly at Notts County after a strike by Nathan Tyson gave the hosts the lead at Meadow Lane.
As announced prior to the trip to the East Midlands, Paul Lambert named a much-changed lineup from that which started last week’s 5-0 victory over Colchester United.
Only Tristan Nydam, Idris El Mizouni and Luke Garbutt were retained from the start, with former Notts County keeper Bartosz Bialkowski replacing Tomas Holy in goal.
Josh Emmanuel, Luke Woolfenden, Armando Dobra, Cole Skuse, Kayden Jackson and Emyr Huws were also brought into the line-up alongside trialist Jon Guthrie.
Friday’s hat-trick hero James Norwood, who was initially named in the starting lineup due to an error on the teamsheet, dropped to the bench.
Kicking off in hazy evening sunshine on what was one of the hottest days of the year so far, it was the hosts who had the first shot of the match, trialist Dion Kelly-Evans finding space on the right of the Ipswich box before hitting a low shot which was comfortably saved by Bialkowski.
Town immediately replied at the other end with El Mizouni jinking into the box before finding Garbutt, who had time to bring the ball down and shoot, but unfortunately his effort was blocked by Jackson ahead of him and bounced harmlessly wide.
On 15 minutes Garbutt nearly found himself one-on-one with keeper Ross Fitzsimons after a mistake by the Notts backline but was denied by a last gasp sliding tackle. With the hosts immediately giving the ball away, Dobra managed to find Garbutt again deeper inside the box, but he could not get a shot in and the danger was cleared.
Having begun the match in temperatures of 30°C in Nottingham, both sides paused for a drinks break midway through the half.
Five minutes later Town did have the ball in the Notts net through Jackson, but only after the striker had already fouled Damien McCrory on the way into the box.
Five minutes before half-time, Nydam collected the ball on the left and sent in a cross which Jackson tried to turn towards goal, but he was unable to make a firm connection under pressure and the ball bounced into Fitzsimons’ arms.
One minute later, Town found themselves a goal down. From a long ball forward, Emmanuel lost the ball under pressure from Andy Kellett who set up Nathan Tyson. The trialist, who had netted a hat-trick for Notts a week earlier at Ilkeston Town, drilled the ball firmly past Bialkowski into the bottom left corner to give the hosts the lead.
With no other chances materialising for either side before the break, Town will hope to hit back after the interval with the kind of second-half display that impressed the travelling fans at Colchester on Friday.
Notts County: Fitzsimons, Rose, Bird, Reid, Doyle, Tyson, Boldewijn, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Kellett, Kelly-Evans, McCrory.
Town: Bialkowski, Emmanuel, Nydam, Guthrie, Woolfenden, El Mizouni, Dobra, Skuse, Jackson, Garbutt, Huws. Subs: Holy, Downes, Dozzell, Clements, Rowe, Wilson, Ndaba, Norwood.