Town's reserves beat a strong Derby County side 4-0 at Portman Road on Saturday afternoon. The goals came from Dean McDonald, Jimmy Juan, Billy Clarke and Owen Garvan.

Both sides included trialists in their squads, Ipswich naming 18-year-old Eric Graves amongst their substitutes. The striker or right-sided midfielder has been with the Stoke City Academy up to now. Derby included a trialist from Suffolk side Bury Town, defender Tom Bullard.

The Rams fielded recent signing Kevin Miller, who was between the sticks for Barnsley when Ipswich beat the Tykes 4-2 at Wembley to win promotion to the Premiership in 2000.

Town almost took the lead in the third minute when Irish striker Billy Clarke beat keeper Miller to the ball. The angle was tight, but the frontman still attempted to score with his left foot, but his shot went just wide.

Irish defender Gerard Nash took a knock to his face but managed to carry on, however, a nasty tackle on Town captain Scott Mitchell left him with a sprained ankle and he was replaced by Sammy Moore in the 23rd minute. Aidan Collins took over the captaincy.

Ipswich took the lead four minutes later when the hard-working Clarke turned his marker on the right and put in a cross which Dean McDonald collected and fired into the bottom corner of the net.

On 37 Town doubled their advantage. Jimmy Juan scored his first goal in Town colours after a free-kick from Owen Garvan had found him at the back post. If Juan had missed the ball, Gerard Nash would have been on hand to put the ball into the back of the net.

Town were dominating in all areas of the pitch and had Billy Clarke had been able to time his runs just that little bit better, the Blues would have had more goals, but he was caught offside four times in the first half.

With Derby playing a high line, keeper Miller was having to make some good one-on-one stops from the Town attacks.

On 72 minutes, Derby replaced Danish midfielder Morten Bisgaard with England U18 midfielder Lionel Ainsworth.

Miller was beaten again on 78 when Clarke beat the offside trap and slotted home, although the visiting keeper did get a touch to the ball.

Derby's frustration was starting to show; Marcus Tudgay was booked for a late tackle on Town sub Sammy Moore. Both sides made substitutions on 81, Derby replaced Tudgay with another youngster, Karl Ashton, and Town swapped Clarke with Danny Haynes.

More substitutions were made with two minutes remaining, Chris Casement coming on for Gerard Nash and Dan Martin replacing Tom Bullard for Derby.

Town scored their fourth in the two minutes of added on time. A cross came in from the right and Owen Garvan was at the back post to slot home.

Ipswich Town: 1 Shane Supple, 2 Scott Mitchell (16 Sammy Moore 23), 3 James Krause, 4 Liam Manning, 5 Aidan Collins, 6 Gerard Nash (14 Chris Casement 88), 7 Dean McDonald, 8 Jimmy Juan, 9 Billy Clarke (15 Danny Haynes 81), 10 Liam Craig and 11 Owen Garvan. Unused: 12 Eric Graves and 13 Cathal Lordan.

Derby County: 1 Kevin Miller, 2 Mitchell Booth, 3 Jamie Vincent, 4 Chris Turner, 5 Pablo Mills, 6 Tom Bullard (15 Dan Martin 88), 7 Giles Barnes, 8 Morten Bisgaard (12 Lionel Ainsworth 72), 9 Junior, 10 Tommy Smith and 11 Marcus Tudgay (16 Karl Ashton 81). Unused: 13 Ross Atkins, 14 David Cassidy, 15 Dan Martin. Att: 502.

Thanks to James Ager for the report.

Photo: Action Images

Ipswich Town Polls