Ipswich Town Under 23s 5 Millwall Under 23s 0 Tom Adeyemi’s long road to recovery suffered a setback as he only managed to last 32 minutes on his return from injury as a vastly experienced Town’s Under 23’s brushed aside hopeless Millwall 5-0 at an incredibly wet and windy Playford Road, writes Kieren Standley.
A brace from Ben Morris and goals from Freddie Sears, Flynn Downes and Aaron Drinan saw the Blues to an empathic victory against a Millwall side that failed to test trialist keeper Kleton Perntreou in the Town goal.
Ipswich took the lead after 27 minutes when Grant Ward found Morris inside the area, who atoned for a sitter missed just a minute prior, firing low on the turn under Lions keeper Ryan Sandford.
Shortly after, Adeyemi’s afternoon was brought to an abrupt end when he appeared to pull up in discomfort whilst chasing a loose ball, with Downes almost instantly replacing him following some initial treatment.
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Town grabbed their second of the afternoon just seven minutes after the restart when Morris’ in-swinging corner was met by the unmarked Downes, who prodded home unchallenged.
Drinan could have made it three shortly after as he latched on to an excellent ball in to the left channel from Myles Kenlock, but the Irishman saw his shot well saved by Sandord.
The influential Morris then had two fantastic opportunities of his own to extend the Blues’ cushion but was denied by two tremendous saves from the impressive Sandford.
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Town however did get their reward for domination when Downes robbed the ball in midfield, played a perfectly weighted through ball to Sears and the former Colchester man smashed it high past the onrushing keeper.
Morris notched his second of an impressive game when he drilled home the rebound after Downes was denied from close range, following a deep corner from Connor McKendry.
The rout was complete just two minutes later when Drinan headed home from three yards out after Sandford failed to deal with Morris’ deflected delivery.
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The on-looking Mick McCarthy would have been delighted with another outstanding performance from a number of players, with Morris, Luke Hyam and Adam Webster in particular, catching the eye.
Town XI: Perntreou, McLoughlin, Webster, Goteni, Kenlock, Hyam, Ward (McKendry), Hyam, Adeyemi (Downes), Morris, Sears (Folami), Drinan
Unused: Wright, Webber
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