A strong Town second string comfortably beat AFC Sudbury 6-1 at The MEL Group Stadium on Wednesday evening. Braces from Ronan Murray and Byron Lawrence, along with strikes from Nathan Ellington and Mark Timlin, secured the win for Town, after Lee Boylan had equalised early on for the hosts.

The Blues were almost gifted an early goal when Sudbury centre-half Ian Cousins stumbled and allowed Ellington a clear sight of goal, but the strikers effort was blocked, as was Kyle Hammond's follow up.

However, Ellington wasn't to be denied and the former Wigan man gave Town the lead after 17 minutes. He was fed by Murray before lashing a left-foot shot past Sudbury keeper Steve Northwood from 12 yards.

David Cowley tested Arran Lee-Barrett for the first time soon after, but the keeper comfortably held the Sudbury man's crisp 20-yard strike.

Murray turned a Cormac Burke cross just past the post, prior to Boylan heading into Lee-Barrett's hands from Cowley's centre.

Boylan made amends soon after when he equalised just after the half hour. The striker latched on to a long ball and as the ball came over his right shoulder, he connected first time and looped the ball over the advancing Lee-Barrett from the edge of the box.

Boylan tried an audacious volley from 35 yards that dropped just wide, before Town were gifted their second goal on 36.

Michael Shinn's attempted header back to Northwood fell to the feet of Murray, who calmly slotted past the stranded keeper.

Two minutes later and Murray had increased Town's lead. The Irish U21 international played a neat one-two with strike partner Ellington before side-footing past Northwood again.

Two minutes after the restart Byron Lawrence hit a shot from 25 yards that deflected off James Smith and beat sub keeper Ben Tracey at his near post.

Lawrence grabbed his second on 54 when he met Ellington's pull back at the far post and bundled the ball into the net.

Lee-Barrett made a fine save four minutes later when he got down low to push Smith's header away following a Sudbury corner.

Murray fired a left-foot shot just over the bar on the hour, prior to Boylan seeing his header clip the bar on its way over at the other end.

Ellington toe-poked Lawrence's left-wing cross just wide before Murray pulled the ball across goal to give sub Mark Timlin a simple tap-in with seven minutes remaining.

Town continued to press and Gunnar Thorsteinsson nodded David October's cross just wide, and there was still time for Lawrence to fizz a 25-yarder just past the post.

Boss Paul Jewell will have been particularly impressed with stand-out midfielder Cheick Kourouma, who hardly put a foot wrong all night. The Frenchman controlled the game for Town and, alongside the lively front pairing of Murray and Ellington, must surely have caught the eye of the watching first-team manager.

Town XI: Lee-Barrett, Hammond, October, Thorsteinsson, Ainsley, Whight, Burke (Timlin 82), Kourouma, Ellington (Winter 90), Murray, Lawrence. Unused: Crowe, Peters, Robinson. Att: 732.

Report: James Ager

Photo: Action Images

chrisw2045 added 23:31 - Aug 1 Lee-Barrett - very solid once again Hammond - got forward and overlapped at most opportunities October - steady game not exceptional Thorsteinsson - promising player uses both feet, moves the ball quickly, will be around for a while hopefully Ainsley - captain, not quite ready for first team but good organiser, and communication Whight - calm and collected - however not tight enough on boylan for the goal Burke - lively and not afraid to run at fullback Kourouma - best player on the pitch, seemed to be everywhere and dominated Ellington - battled, good finish, but not upto standard for his age and experience Murray - fast, lively and good finishes Lawrence - did ok played out wide left, fast and strong player but not as influential as Cheik and Gunnar on this occasion but most certainly can see the potential. Played a 4-4-2 - good overall performance also top marks for Sudbury's pitch!

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Hermann_eats_puffin added 23:33 - Aug 1 Well done to a young Town side for getting a good win under their belts. Reading through some of the posts it seems like Town are damned when they do and damned when they don't. After the Luton & Southend games many people were quick to profess doom & gloom. Now when we win a game criticism is still thrown at the team and statements along the lines of, "they're only lower league opposition" are common. Now I don't think that we should get overly carried away with either set of results. Just because we don't set the world alight in pre season doesn't cast in stone the fact that we will have a bad season. As others have pointed out Man City lost a pre season friendly the other night (to Oldham I think) yet you won't have tonnes of people screaming Mancini out. Whilst it's true that we were a million miles away from enjoying a season like Man City we still need to get things into perspective. During the course of our last successful spell those running the club got over excited & ambitious with signings & the contracts dished out. That combined with money being spent on the ground sent us into administration. Regardless of how much Mr Evans has in his pocket we remain a club in many millions of pounds debt and run at a very big operating loss each year. Clearly this is unsustainable and I don't blame those at the club for trying to reign in the purse strings on transfer fees & player wages. I think that player wages are hugely inflated and whilst they are always going to be very well paid in what is a short career the gap between footballers and the average wage let alone that of many key workers is obscene. That aside I think it's sensible for Town to be running it's finances more prudently in preparation for FFP. Rather than just going for broke and throwing money at Town I think it's more important that our club survives for generations to come and I would not want to see Town go the way of Rangers or Portsmouth. We need to remember that we've been out of the top divsion for the majority of the last two decades. We have no god given right to be in the Premiership and there are plenty of teams who have similar claims to be in the top flight. We do not have the financial means to compete with some of the teams backed by foreign investors. However I for one am pleased by moves such as bringing Klug back to give a new focus on the youths. Yes we may not have Cat 1 status but the revisions to the youth system seem to be heavily stacked in favour of the rich clubs in the Premiership. The interests of clubs like our own & those at a lower level are not being looked after with these changes to the youth game. We're trying to do the best that we can with the resources/ money that we have. Let's back the team 100% for the season ahead with actual realistic expectations. And with rant over back to tonights game. Well done to the reserves & the youngsters who got the goals. Let's hope they can keep on improving and be banging on the doors of the first team before long. COYB!

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bigolconnor added 23:52 - Aug 1 Good work lads.
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Wickets added 08:14 - Aug 2 i'm told not a diamond in sight!!
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brian_a_mul added 09:00 - Aug 2 Great to see Murray getting some goals. He definitely has goals in him. Also great to see him getting two assists. By the reports his link up play was good which is very promising. Quick and makes intelligent runs. Could make alot of space in the final third for Chops. Possible partnership??
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algarvefan added 09:31 - Aug 2 Great post hermann-eats-puffin, realistic and well put. There is a quiet revolution going on at Town from the bottom up, which is all about finance and bringing on youth. It's how we were successful before and how we will be successful again, but more importantly it's about securing the future of the club. Some fans on here can't see further than the end of their nose....wake up and smell the coffee folks or we'll just be another Rangers or Portsmouth....then you'll really have something to moan about!! Short term success there won't be at Town, be prepared for a few more seasons of mid table all though you never know, we could do better :-)

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havinit69 added 10:29 - Aug 2 Have to agree with the earlier comment about Jamie Peters, sad to see that he is an unused sub for the stiffs. I can understand the reasons why but not great to see for our longest serving player. Think he is going to struggle to play for anyone above conference level.
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AlexanderFields added 10:30 - Aug 2 Sensible post, Hermann.
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MrCool added 10:39 - Aug 2 Herman - nice post matey, very thoughtful and incisive. Are you sure you're on the right site?
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Brockleyblue added 11:32 - Aug 2 Great morale boosting result but I find it amazing that Jaime Peters can't even get a game for the Reserves. He may not be the greatest player in the world but nor is he, as Paul Jewell seems to think, the worst.
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TimmyH added 19:30 - Aug 2 Not overpaid like quite a few players of our first team, a lot of them hungry to play well and progress, yet again though must stress 'only a friendly'.
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Lukeybluey added 20:09 - Aug 2 Loach Edwards chambers smith #new lb Luongo delaney Jet martin cresswell Chopra A bit out there and different but I think it covers areas that we need covering, although I would say imo a new leftback is required. Delaneys in the midfield as kithe tall strong ball winning midfielder we need who can win a header. Playing alongside luongo, he seens very comfortable on the ball, and can tackle and puck a pass. Cressy left wing because the crosses that he puts in at lb to get more of them id stick him left wing. My opinion anyway. (sorry for the bad grammar and spelling. Doing this on a phone is a pain in the arse!)

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Jimmys_Law added 21:06 - Aug 2 Delaney couldn't cope in midfield, I'm sorry. He doesn't have the awareness needed to operate in the thick of the action and his forward passing is nowhere near good enough. Comparing him to Drury I think there is nothing Delaney could do in midfield that Drury couldn't do better.
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kerryblue added 01:22 - Aug 3 Murray worth a start up front with Chopra???Better than Twittering JET
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