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Matchday Recap: The story of the game as Town’s EFL Trophy hopes are ended as Lambert’s men are beaten at Exeter
Ipswich Town are in action against Exeter City this afternoon - Credit: Archant
Ipswich Town were beaten 2-1 at Exeter in the EFL Trophy this afternoon.
Ipswich are three wins from a Wembley final, with the Grecians standing between the Blues and a place in the last 16.
If the scores are level at the end of 90 minutes this afternoon, the game goes straight to penalties.
Looking ahead to the game, assistant manager Stuart Taylor said: "I've always said from the start of the season that I want to win every game that I play in.
"But what we did at the start of the season was we gave the youngsters a chance, we gave lads that were coming back from injury a chance to go and get minutes.
"We wanted to make sure that everybody was progressing through the season and getting equal game time, so that when they were called upon that they were fit, they were ready to go rather than bring somebody in who hadn't played for six or eight weeks.
"There aren't enough U23s games in the schedule to keep people fit and ticking over and there's a big difference between U23s football and first-team football for experienced players.
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"So for them to get as much as they can out of that then playing first-team football is very, very good for them and it's essential for them.
"For the younger ones coming through, as many minutes as they can get in the first team playing in front of a crowd is invaluable to them.
"And this is what this club is all about, bringing through the younger ones, progressing and developing our own. We've got a fantastic academy, so why not bring the younger ones through and give them game time?
"Now we're getting to the latter stages of the cup, they are still in contention and let's just see what the manager does in terms of the team for the weekend.
"But it is going to be a very tough game, there's no doubt about it. We can't be slack on Exeter, we'll treat them exactly as we have every other game and we'll do our homework on them and make sure that we give the boys as much information and be detailed on it and we'll go and win this game."
