Diosgyor 1 Ipswich Town 0THE Blues were denied a deserved clean sheet against a well-drilled and lively Diosgyor side in a competitive friendly played in the late Sunday afternoon sunshine in Hungary yesterday.

Diosgyor 1 Ipswich Town 0

THE Blues were denied a deserved clean sheet against a well-drilled and lively Diosgyor side in a competitive friendly played in the late Sunday afternoon sunshine in Hungary yesterday.

Town played well enough without ever getting on top, defended stoutly, keeping errors to a minimum and might even have sneaked a result had they taken early chances of their own.

While losing is never fun, Town will look at the positives and the squad has another tough 90 minutes in the bag.

All seven youngsters on the trip got a game, with the impressive Owen Garvan and Aidan Collins starting.

Town were without Nicky Forster who picked up a thigh strain in the game at Ujpest TE as he sat out as a precaution.

The new Town striker walked down the running track around the pitch to chat to a group of 20 hardy Blues fans who had made the trip and were sat on wooden benches in a concrete stand behind the DTVK goal.

The small isolated contingent won the Magyar hearts by joining in a Mexican wave that spread around the old stadium after the Reds had scored.

Town played a wing back formation with Collins slotting in on the left side of the three central defenders.

Diosgyor, who finished 10th in the Hungarian League last season, have strengthened their squad during the summer.

Like Ujpest, who they play in the league's opener on Sunday, Diosgyor are more advanced in their training and are ready for competitive football while Town still have two friendly games left to play.

Almost all the 8,000 Reds' fans munched merrily away on sunflower seeds as they watched their side. The red and white shirted side play in the industrial town of Miskolc, which was also home to the Queen's castle, 100 miles from Budapest.

The passionate crowd urged their side forward and Lewis Price made a good save from Istvan Sipeki and followed that up with an excellent double stop from Tibor Tisza.

Collins headed against his own crossbar as he tried to clear and Town were forced to concede a large number of corners but they defended manfully in a goalless first half.

Sam Parkin had early opportunities to steal the limelight from the missing Forster, and Dean Bowditch was playing his part in setting him up. But he twice hit decent chances wide, while the keeper was grateful when the former Swindon man hit another straight at him.

Bowditch had a shot tipped around a post and had a lively first half but an ankle injury forced him off early in the second half with Liam Trotter the last of the five substitutes used, as Town switched to a 4-4-2.

The young FA Youth Cup winner was denied moments after going on when Istvan Kovestkalvi made a superb save to tip away his header from a Jim Magilton free kick.

Shane Supple was alert to danger and saved from Sipeki who had a free header.

The young Irishman also made a wonderful save to tip away a thunderous, angled, drive from Romanian striker Cibrian Binder three minutes from time.

He was beaten on 68 minutes by substitute Shiminic Marius when Town were caught square with a high back line after a free kick and the attacker rounded the keeper and finished from an acute angle.

Last night's teams

DTVK: Kovestkalvi, Mogyedodi, Farvas, Vakesti, Noghodobi, Halgas (Binder, 56) Sipeki, Pinter (Kotoma, 68) Vitecki (Farkas, 59) Horvatl, Tisza (Marius, 66). Subs not used: Szalma, Kranjncz, Almasi.

Ipswich Town: Price (Supple, 46) Wilnis (Casement, 46) Richards, De Vos (Magilton, 46), Collins, Naylor, Westlake (McDonald, 46), Garvan, Currie, Bowditch (Trotter, 52), Parkin. All subs used.

Referee: Gyorgy Galhidi.

Attendance: 8,120.