Town's reserves demolished a young Nottingham Forest second string 5-1 at Portman Road on Wednesday night. Alun Armstrong netted a hat-trick while Dean Bowditch scored twice for an unusually strong Town side.

Bowditch opened the scoring in the third minute from a Darren Bent header after a Martijn Reuser cross during a hugely impressive opening spell from the Blues.

On 21 Armstrong tapped in from another Bent header to put Town two goals in front.

The visitors pulled one back six minutes before the break through Spencer Weir-Daley but only two minutes into the second period Armstrong added Town's third goal.

The Blues finished very strongly and Dean Bowditch scored Town's fourth in the 82nd minute before Armstrong notched his third and Town's fifth in the late on with a stunning 30-yarder, possibly the best goal seen at Portman Road this season.

John McGreal's completion of a full 90 minutes will come as welcome news to Joe Royle, desperately short of central defenders ahead of the weekend trip to Derby. The ex-Tranmere man looked very comfortable and appears virtually certain to make his first senior start of the season at Pride Park on Saturday.

Martijn Reuser was quiet, a couple of fine first half shots aside, and was largely outshone in midfield by Matt Bloomfield, the Felixstowe-born player running the middle of the park.

The front three looked particularly sharp in the first half while Scott Barron, normally a winger, looked impressive out of position at full-back.

Reserves: Lewis Price, Michael Synnott, Scott Barron, Antonio Murray (Liam Manning 46), John McGreal, Scott Mitchell, Martijn Reuser (Daniel Flack 64), Matt Bloomfield, Alun Armstrong, Dean Bowditch, Darren Bent (Nabil Abidallah 46).

Photo: Action Images

Ipswich Town Polls