Town's preparations for the new season hit a bump as they were beaten 3-0 at Tottenham Hotspur.

Boss Paul Lambert fielded two separate sides on their first visit to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and it was the first-half XI which suffered the most as they conceded three goals in the opening 30 minutes.

Ryan Sessegnon and Son Heung-min's brace did the damage for Jose Mourinho's side, which was full of international quality in the first 45 minutes.

The Blues contributed to their own pain, though, as some poor defending gifted Spurs two goals.

Town stuck to their guns, but rarely looked like ever breaching the home defence.

The positive is that Ipswich will not have to come up against an attack like they did in the opening 45 minutes in League One.

Dele Alli, Lucas Moura and Son all started for Spurs and that quality quickly showed as they opened up a two-goal lead in the opening 10 minutes, though Ipswich were masters of their own downfall for both goals.

The opener came in the sixth minute when Spurs broke following a Town attack breaking down and Dele Alli played in Sessegnon, who cut inside and slotted a low shot past David Cornell and into the bottom corner.

Cornell, making his first appearance for the Blues having signed on Monday, had to take the blame for the second goal three minutes later as he produced a suicidal piece of goalkeeping.

Trying to play out from the back, his pass was intercepted by Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, allowing Alli to tee up Son for an easy finish.

There was nothing much they could do about the third goal on the half-hour as a piece of quality from Juan Foyth cut the defence open.

His fine through ball set Son clear and the South Korean finished with aplomb.

It was hard for Lambert's men, but they stuck to their guns although could not test Hugo Lloris in the Spurs goal.

The second half brought a mass change, with 11 fresh faces coming on for Town.

Brett McGavin was one of them, but he lasted less than 20 minutes before being replaced by Jon Nolan, making his first appearance of pre-season.

Kayden Jackson brought some energy at the top of the pitch while their first serious effort came midway through the second half when Freddie Sears latched on to a loose ball but his shot flew over Joe Hart's crossbar.

Ipswich continued to work hard, but could not make headway against a Spurs side that was largely made up of younger players, including former Blues loanee Cameron Carter-Vickers, by the full-time whistle.

Town are next in action on Tuesday afternoon when the face West Ham in their only home friendly of pre-season.

Tottenham: Lloris (c) (Hart 46 (Gazzaniga 74)), Foyth (Carter-Vickers 46), Alderweireld, Davies Cirkin 46), Sessegnon, Winks (Devine 71), Hojbjerg (White 64), Gedson, Dele (Bowden 74), Lucas (Scarlett 71), Son (Clarke 46).

Town first half: Cornell, Vincent-Young, Nsiala, Woolfenden, Ward (c), Skuse, Bishop, Judge, Dobra, Edwards, Drinan.

Town second half: Holy, Donacien, Chambers, Ndaba, Kenlock, McGavin (Nolan 64), Downes, Dozzell, Lankester, Jackson, Sears. Subs: Smith, Folami, El Mizouni.

Photo: Matchday Images

chepstowblue added 17:09 - Aug 22 Having predicted anything from 3 to 8-0, this is a very satisfactory outcome. Damage limited,pride intact, nothing learned,other than who's fit and capable and who isnt.
7

Counagoal added 17:13 - Aug 22 Not too fussed about losing 3-0 to a much more superior Spurs side. However if you combine the two 11s we had in either half it would make for a much better starting 11 for the league one season. With holy in goal, wolf and KVY in defence, downes in midfield we have a good core. Then the huge choice of good but inconsistent players for other positions
8

TimmyH added 17:15 - Aug 22 To be fair Tottenham played a fairly strong team but it looked like they were playing as a bunch of individuals still on holiday as for us we hardly threatened their goal. As said got away with a comparatively light beating. Cue Lamberts post match interview picking out every positive he can.
2

Suffolkboy added 17:15 - Aug 22 Getting fit , playing together ,developing as a unit and being tested is what ant pre- season is about ,and it'll be satisfying to read the later reflections after considered thoughts are gathered . IF we've come through without any injuries , have learned and gained extra fitness ,all is well and good ! COYB
3

jas0999 added 17:25 - Aug 22 The score somewhat irrelevant against quality opposition. The usual defensive errors is however a concerns. Seems very similar to last season. PL quality or not, if we keep making mistakes, even in League one we will struggle to win football matches.
5

grow_our_own added 17:26 - Aug 22 Holy > Cornell, Vincent-Young > Donacien, Woolfenden > Chambers, Ndaba > Nsiala Edwards > Sears Dobra > Nolan Dozzell > McGavin Downes > Judge Bishop > Skuse El Mizouni > any other midfielder in the past two games. Where was he today? Jackson > Drinan Lambert's complexion > red than a morbid alcoholic
2

afcfee added 17:30 - Aug 22 Some lovely flakey passes from Skuse can see why got new contract.
1

rugbytomc added 17:31 - Aug 22 Looks like we played the same formation both halves which is the same as the other night. For us that is progress. However, even if you combine the two sides with our strongest 11, I think we need another cb to play alongside Woolfenden or to at least provide competition to chambers
3

Bert added 17:33 - Aug 22 Why wouldn't Lambert want to pick out the positives ? That's what managers do as well as sorting out the obvious issues of poor defending and how to get midfield to feed those in front of them. This was a workout against a multimillion pound team. The detractors would be criticising the club if all our friendlies were against lower division teams. Time for everyone to pull together.

15

BildestonBlue added 17:36 - Aug 22 Thought cirkin looked decent for them, I know it's a snap shot and I hate talking Ill of our own but Kenlock just isn't up to it and Ward can't play 90 let alone 90x3 every 7/8 days!
0

JCBLUE added 17:55 - Aug 22 Not a great start, 2-0 down after 9 minutes. I thought the 2nd half team played really well (0-0), more than held their own ..... 20/21 is our season, full of hope yet again!!
4

Pezzer added 17:58 - Aug 22 Nsiala? Surely we can do better than this, he was a complete liability last year.
-1

BettyBlue added 18:01 - Aug 22 What was the point of this game? We can't compete in the first round of the FA Cup but we can play friendlies against the Premiership when we only have a team of crap players. We didn't have a shot on goal. Couldn't get out of our half and everyone looked like they had just met in the dressing room. Pathetic, Lambert.
-2

Upthetown1970 added 18:07 - Aug 22 Still missing that creative midfielder. We have one in the club but hes probably too young at the moment although Lambert does say if your good enough your old enough. The young lad Gibbs should be given a chance hes the best I've seen coming through our youth for a long time.
0

NormEmerges added 18:12 - Aug 22 What can we learn from these training games? Based on today's showing there's a few conclusions to be drawn. 1. Cornell looked like a League 2 goalie, on this showing I'd put Wright ahead of him for our number two. 2. Good to have KVY back, looks like a good partnership developing with Dobra, who also looked strong. 3. Sadly Chambers doesn't look the player he used to be. Woolfenden gets better and better, and Ndaba might share Nsiala for his partner. 4. Ward disappointed, but Kenlock didn't size the opportunity. 5. In midfield, Skuse looked experienced but limited, Downes looked classy, Dozzell looked ok but failed to impose himself, Bishop was anonymous, Nolan and Judge were chasing shadows. McGavin looked ok but wasn't on the field long, and we didn't get to see El Mizouni at all. 6. Up front, Drinan looked ok but Jackson looked better. The best of the wide men were clearly Dobra and Edwards. Overall summary? We showed nice movement and control, our first eleven should be real contenders in this league.

1

algarvefan added 18:21 - Aug 22 Did some of you watch this game or are you trotting out your usual negative drivel?
1

Steve_ITFC_Sweden added 18:38 - Aug 22 All in all, this wasn't such a bad performance against a side that should finish top 6 in the PL (ok, it wasn't their full first team, but then neither was it ever ours). Take away Tottenham and replace with Side X from League 1, and I think we would usually have come out on top. Some nice stuff played in the middle at times - we know that is where we are strongest. We need to sort out the attack (+ Norwood? + Hawkins?) and the central defence (although I thought Ndaba did himself no harm at all today). Woolfy looked good. Our best player for me was K V-Y in the first half. He should cause real trouble for the opposition in L1 going forward and his defending was solid too. Kenwood had a mixed day: he did some good stuff too actually, but he also unnecessarily lost the ball or misplaced a pass on a couple of occasions. All in all, realistically, not too despondent about today.

1

Steve_ITFC_Sweden added 18:39 - Aug 22 Oh yeah! And Downes was good too. Must hang on to him this season!
0

dirtydingusmagee added 18:51 - Aug 22 did anyone expect anything better than a loss .?
1

unknown100 added 19:13 - Aug 22 These games are literally about fitness! And that's really it! You never know... playing at that stadium and sharing a pitch with players of level might just give them the ambition to see what they are missing, Lambert should be saying to these players, you are 2 good season away from playing at these grounds against these players every week! Look at Sheffield United, Southampton, Bournemouth, Norwich, is they went from league 1 to premier league very quickly! It does and can happen

1

runningout added 19:15 - Aug 22 don't give a pandas y fronts for any opposition. Anything but a win nowhere near good enough. Any other attitude don't call yourself competitive. Or I must come from a long list generation
-1

Michael101 added 19:23 - Aug 22 Unknowen.yes the 4teams you mentioned went from 3rd to 1st lea gue but they had owners who backed there manager.not like Ebenezer evans.
0

TimmyH added 19:43 - Aug 22 @Bert - and that's what Lambert was doing at the back end of last season, picking out positives in games when there weren't many. You can see already at near the start of a new season people or posting with their hearts rather than heads (understandable optimism, but we've all been here before) - and personally have never been at such a low regarding this club.
1

midastouch added 19:48 - Aug 22 I didn't see the game so I can't really comment too much.  However, considering we were 3 down after only 30 mins then 3 nil feels like we got off fairly lightly. At least we didn't end up with a rugby scoreline as that would have been very embarrassing! When you consider that one of their players would be worth more than our entire squad, then it's hard to criticise too much. Hopefully they can take some confidence in keeping things level pegging in the second half at least.

0

ringwoodblue added 19:48 - Aug 22 Wonderful for our young players to play at such a great stadium compared to the piddling L1 grounds but such a shame our supporters couldn't be there. Fair result which could've been a lot more embarrassing. Bring on the Hammers!
2

Blogs 295 bloggers

Ipswich Town Polls