New signing Danny Rowe’s first goal in a Town shirt completed a 3-0 U23s win against Crystal Palace at Dulwich Hamlet’s Champion Hill Stadium this afternoon, Ben Morris and Shane McLoughlin having given Gerard Nash’s side a quick-fire two-goal first-half lead in front of the watching Mick McCarthy.

Alongside McCarthy sat Bryan Klug and Eagles strike legend Mark Bright, while Blues left-back Myles Kenlock, an ex-Palace youth player, was also in attendance.

A drab opening 20 minutes on a poor surface featured a good Michael Crowe save from a dipping Jason Eyenga-Lokilo shot as the hosts started on top.

However, Town began to get into the game and sprang into life with two quick goals. Firstly, in the 22nd minute, some neat passing saw Andre Dozzell slip Ben Morris clear and the youngster finished well past the onrushing Kleton Perntreou.

A minute later, Town forced a corner and a curling Danny Rowe flagkick was headed home unmarked by Shane McLoughlin.

Arguably, the Blues should have added to their first half tally as they began to create chances but McLoughlin headed over when it looked easier to score, Teddy Bishop volleyed over after a burst into the box and Luke Woolfenden had a shot tipped wide after a good move.

The half-time whistle brought respite for the hosts and no changes at the break for Town as they looked to start the second half on the front foot.

Soon after the restart, a George Fowler run and cross was just out of reach of the on-rushing Ben Morris before Bishop picked up the loose ball and nearly curled home.

On 58 minutes, McLoughlin blazed over from close range after more good work from Morris and Bishop. Seven minutes later, Bishop hit the post after some neat trickery from McLoughlin.

With 20 minutes to go the impressive Bishop was replaced by Chris Smith, who moved into central defence with Paul Digby taking up a defensive midfield role.

Crowe then made an excellent save with his feet on 73 from a Nya Kirby shot then a minute later Town counter-attacked and Danny Rowe made it three with a powerful left foot finish through the legs of Perntreou.

The finish capped a very good performance from the new signing and saw him not just notch his first goal in an Ipswich shirt but also receive a round of applause from McCarthy.

Rowe, who had received a number of firm challenges throughout, was close to being substituted on 75 minutes after another tackle. However, he indicated to Nash that he wanted to carry on and play the full 90 minutes, which would have impressed McCarthy.

Rowe was left on as Dozzell and McLoughlin were replaced by Adam McDonnell and James Blanchfield. On a rapidly deteriorating surface, the only chance of note in the last 15 minutes was a run and shot from Digby that was easily saved.

U23 GOALS | @BenMorris99, @97Loughlin and Danny Rowe were all on target as #itfc defeated @CPFC 3-0 on Monday

Full highlights on Player HD pic.twitter.com/5iuGMVMvYu

— Ipswich Town FC (@Official_ITFC) February 22, 2017

A positive afternoon for the Town saw both Tommy Smith and Luke Hyam come through the 90 minutes unscathed, while Bishop and particularly Rowe impressed for the visitors.

Youngsters Morris and McLoughlin were lively and took their goals well as all eyes now turn to the derby clash at Carrow Road this coming Sunday.

U23s: Crowe, Fowler, Digby, T Smith, Woolfenden, Hyam, Bishop (C Smith 70), Rowe, Dozzell (Blanchfield 75), McLoughlin (McDonnell 75), Morris. Unused: Hayes, McKendry.

Photo: TWTD

iaintaylorx added 15:08 - Feb 20 Good stuff, now get him on the bench for the Derby. Only seen and heard good, positive things about him since we signed him!
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jocasaja added 15:09 - Feb 20 Looking forward to seeing him in the 1st team - really getting a more positive vibe about our current progress going forward
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TheDailyTractor added 15:09 - Feb 20 Good. Now get on tha team bus to Norwich and bang in a 30 yarder in added time to seal 3 points cause absolute scenes and send us all home happy =)
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IRTractorboyz added 15:25 - Feb 20 Things looking up
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bluelady added 15:41 - Feb 20 another good U23 result..... shows that our squad has more depth now! hopefully the winning will feed into the team for Sunday!
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Len_Brennan added 16:12 - Feb 20 Strong side, particularly a midfield of BIshop, Hyam, Dozzell & Rowe. Was it a 4-4-2 formation? Hyam as a defensive midfielder behind the other 3 would be very positive.
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Bluebell added 16:12 - Feb 20 Perhaps that will shut a few people up who wanted us to spend millions on a 'known' striker. Early days yet but the team is coming together nicely. He deserves a place on the bench for Sunday.
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brian_a_mul added 16:30 - Feb 20 Jeezus, Im starting to feel that tingle of anticipation again! Blanchfield has not been talked up much this season, he was breaking through towards the end of last season. Any word on his progress?
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blackcat added 16:51 - Feb 20 Hopefully he will be the right man at the right time The budgie slayer
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braveblue added 17:10 - Feb 20 Bluebell. Who in the team is the 20 goal striker then?
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whosroundisitanyway added 17:14 - Feb 20 bluesnightorg Makes sense now!!!
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midastouch added 22:41 - Feb 20 Get Danny in the first team, he's going to tear it up!
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KiwiBlue2 added 08:27 - Feb 21 Danny sounds like a good prospect but its early days yet, albeit encouraging. He could soften the blow of Lawrence going back to Leicester.
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Bergholtblue added 09:19 - Feb 21 I know that he has fielded some strong teams, which has not always been the case, but Gerard Nash's teams have been clocking up some impressive results lately. By all accounts by playing good football too. Gav any chance of including all of the U23, U18 etc match results under the 'fixtures, or 'stats' tab; or even a tab of their own?
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Razor added 09:53 - Feb 21 Bluebell----if we want to get anywhere near the play offs we WILL need a new 20 goal a season striker. This was an under 23 game in Dulwich---but still great news and things seem to be looking up. Any news on Jonny Williams anybody?
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midastouch added 10:07 - Feb 21 Encouraging to read that Mick applauded Rowe off the field, that must mean he's seen enough to want to move him into the first team picture as soon as possible. While on the subject of Mick, just for the record (and for anybody who can be bothered to read as what I think isn't really that important in the grand scheme of things!) I'm not a total McCarthy convert, but I am certainly prepared to concede that the team performances have improved (that much is obvious) and I think the players and management deserve credit for turning it round. Whether McCarthy finally gave in to fan pressure to set the team up in a more positive manner, or was told to do so from upstairs, we'll never know and we can only speculate. But how and why I don't really care, all I care about is we don't go down and that we beat Norwich on Sunday! :-) If McCarthy is gone next season I won't be losing too much sleep over it, however, if he is still here and the performances continue to be more positive as they have been of late, then we should all be more than happy to get fully behind him and the team. But that was the problem before, he was giving us next to nothing to get behind, that was until this month. It was becoming impossible to back a man putting out such awful and negative team selections. Even some of his most loyal followers such as Swn98 were forced to the brink of their loyalties. However, this is hopefully a thing of the past now and I'm more than prepared to forgive and forget if things continue in a more positive direction. If however Douglas and Skuse get paired again and we start to look bl**dy awful as we did previously, then I'll be the first one on here moaning again lol! :-) One thing I would like to see is us show some reasonable ambition and sign up some of these encouraging loan players, as that would go a long way to appeasing some of us that are still not completely off the fence. Please ITFC deliver the goods on Sunday as surely that would be a huge step towards Mick's redemption if he can deliver 3 points at Carrot Road on Sunday! COYB!!!

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midastouch added 10:23 - Feb 21 And I am really pleased to see DMG finally looking the part again, he was pushing my loyalty to the brink! I'd always been a big DMG fan and I was well pleased when we didn't sell him to Leicester. He deserved some slack time given his bad luck with injuries and he had enough credit in the bank with past performances. But nobody has infinite credit and when I saw him waddling round the pitch against Stevenage offering very little I started to wonder if we'd ever see anything like the earlier form of his town career. Of course he needs to stay injury free which won't be easy, but if he can get a run in the first team and get 100% fitness (he must be about 90% now), then we might enjoy an Indian Summer of DMG and we can all drink to that! I've knocked the likes of Mick and DMG more than once (and the rest) in recent months, but I want to be just as quick to praise as condemn. Most people respond far better to praise than criticism, but I think even the most loyal Mick supporters would concede it was becoming very hard not to find fault prior to this month.

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Len_Brennan added 12:09 - Feb 21 @midastouch - Good posts. Fair & reasonable points, well made.
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brian_a_mul added 14:19 - Feb 21 @ good point Midastouch, Yep, Mick has done remarkably well to keep the team safe during the rough patch with some many players out. The transfer window was a relief for the MM and the staff to get fresh faces in. It looks as if the team is ready to kick on for the rest of the season.
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MaySixth added 22:59 - Feb 21 @midastouch - a small point but Mick didn't applaud Rowe off the pitch. He simply clapped his goal. What was interesting was on 70 minutes there was slight consternation that Rowe might have picked up a knock. McCarthy immediately said to Gerard Nash that he should bring Rowe off if there was any hint of injury but Nash said hat Rowe wanted to stay on to which Mick replied "great, if he wants to carry on then you let him crack on"

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KiwiBlue2 added 02:05 - Feb 22 Midastouch - great posts. I agree with much of what you say. I think that the difference this month has been having Toumani and Emyr in. Can now play through the midfield so I hope we can sign them both at seasons end. Their presence also seems to have re-energised Ward and of course as you point out McG is looking increasingly influential and getting back to his best. Pity that Lawrence is not available for Sunday but I now feel much more confident about the derby than I did at the start of the month. Also the more games the new line up has the better they will get so if MM keeps it going and there are no injuries to key players I think we will have a strong finish to the season. Pity we were not just 5 or 6 points off 6th at present.......

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bluejay added 13:48 - Feb 22 The problem is for me we have a team of loan players. They will go back at the end of the season, other players will no doubt depart and what are we left with. We need a new manager (Cowley brothers) to come in and build a team.
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MaySixth added 14:09 - Feb 22 Cowley brothers - blah, blah, blah.
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