Ipswich Town Reserves 0Derby County Reserves 1OLD boys have a habit of coming back to haunt you and on this occasion it was a young lad in Matthew Robinson who scored the winner against his old club for Derby County, writes Derek Davis.

Ipswich Town Reserves 0

Derby County Reserves 1

OLD boys have a habit of coming back to haunt you and on this occasion it was a young lad in Matthew Robinson who scored the winner against his old club for Derby County, writes Derek Davis.

From the Town point of view the solid hour's work by John McGreal was a real plus.

The Scouser has been dogged by injuries for a year and seemed to have overcome his latest worry which meant him having to endure an epidural to help sort out a back problem.

McGreal looked in fine nick, winning every high ball, faultlessly playing out of defence and organising his young back line.

Nabil Abidallah, fresh from a successful trial at Scottish Division One club Ross County, showed plenty of skill but could not find the telling ball for his forwards and Scott Barron was given the last 20 minutes in his place.

Town included Alex Rhodes, a trialist from Ridgeons League Premier Division club Newmarket Town, but he struggled to make an impact and was replaced by young Northern Ireland international Sam Morrow.

Rhodes, a fitness trainer in Cambridge, has had trials with a number of clubs including Norwich City and Cambridge, while Brentford have tabled a bid for the 21-year-old, but he is scheduled to stay with Ipswich at least until the end of the week.

In a timid first half Derby had the majority of possession but it was Ipswich striker Alun Armstrong, a Rams loan target earlier in the season, who had the best chance – but he shot high and wide from 25 yards with the goal empty after the keeper committed himself and Bowditch played the ball back to him.

Lewis Price made an acrobatic tip-over save to deny Gianfranco Labarthe Tome while former Town Academy forward Robinson headed wide as Town restricted Derby's chances.

It was Robinson who broke the deadlock four minutes after the break when Gerard Nash lost possession just inside the Derby half and the Rams broke quickly through Marcus Tudgay, whose low cross was turned in from close range.

Steve Mccall's young side showed a lot of tenacity to try to get back in the game.

Rams boss George Burley was in the directors' box as he made his first visit to Portman Road since leaving Ipswich Town a little more than one year ago and he may have seen enough to want to offer young Robinson something more permanent.

Ipswich Town Reserves: Price, Mitchell, Krause, Murray, McGreal (Atay, 63) Nash, Abidallah (Barron, 70) Bloomfield, Armstrong, Bowditch and Rhodes (Morrow, 63) Substitutes not used: Peat and Manning.

Derby County: Camp, Hunt, Elliott, Doyle, Mills (Palmer, 63) Mawene, Tome Cassidy, 74) Bolder, Tudgay (Turner, 89) Robinson and Boertien. Substitutes not used: Martin and Richardson.

Referee: Mr T McCoy.

Attendance: 395.