An efficient performance from Town saw new signing Lee Martin notch his first goal for his new club as a plucky Brentford outfit 3-1 were defeated at Griffin Park. Connor Wickham and Jordan Rhodes were also on the scoresheet for the Blues, while Ben Strevens netted for the Bees.

Town started in a 4-4-2 formation with Alan Quinn, who is believed to be interesting Barnsley, mysteriously not even making the bench.

Roy Keane's men started in positive fashion before 150 or so travelling Blues, and Martin opened the scoring on seven minutes with a neat finish past former Blue Lewis Price after Jon Stead had flicked on.

Ben Strevens equalised for the Bees on 16 minutes after Myles Weston had beaten Gareth McAuley at the byline thanks to some fine trickery, before crossing to the unmarked Strevens who shot home past Shane Supple.

Connor Wickham, who also scored in last week's game at Finn Harps, restored Town's lead in the 39th minute, rifling a superb finish past Price as the Blues ended an entertaining first half in style.

Martin was particularly impressive with some darting runs while Jon Stead had always provided an outlet up front. At the back Tommy Smith completed a solid 45 minutes at centre-half, while the gangling Damien Delaney filled in adequately at left-back against a decent Bees side.

A relaxed Roy Keane, resplendent in Town tracksuit, strode onto the pitch at the beginning of the second half to the sound of Transvision Vamp's Baby I Don't Care after making a host of changes which saw a new centre-back partnership in Bruce and Balkestein and Richard Wright replacing Supple between the posts.

Despite a flurry of early pressure from the hosts, Town always looked dangerous on the break and Owen Garvan, a replacement for David Norris, should have scored before sealing the victory as he crossed superbly for Jordan Rhodes to head home third on the 86th minute.

Rhodes had been rapturously welcomed by the Brentford fans when he replaced Wickham on 58 minutes – a tribute to the excellent reputation he forged at Griffin Park in their promotion campaign last term.

Possibly the most encouraging moment of the night was the industrious Jonathan Walters flying down the wing in added time to cross for Pim Balkestein to head over.

Walters, so injury plagued last season, completed the 90 minutes showing no signs of fitness problems and was one of the better performers on a night which provided manager Keane with many positives and food for thought for the forthcoming trip to Ireland.

Town: Supple (R Wright 46), D Wright, Delaney, McAuley (Bruce 46), Smith (Balkestein 46), Trotter (Shumulikoski 58), Walters, Norris (Garvan 58), Stead (Rhodes 58), Wickham (Lisbie 58), Martin.

Report by Dan Botten, author of Ipswich Town: On This Day, which is available here for £6.99. His new book Ipswich Town: The Miscellany is published on August 29th and is available here.

Photo: Action Images

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