FA Youth Cup Third Round Ipswich Town 4 Andover Town 0 Ipswich Town’s youngsters comfortably knocked out non-league Andover Town to book their place in the fourth round of the FA Youth Cup, writes Liam Young.
Second half goals from Armando Dobra, Kai Brown from the penalty spot, Tommy Hughes and Harley Curtis saw Town to a comfortable 4-0 victory at Portman Road.
The first half was even with very few chances of note as the away side stubbornly repelled everything Ipswich threw at them.
Andover started brightly, and it took Town a while to get any rhythm into their play but once they did, they became dominant.
Midfielder Idris El Mizouni looked the liveliest with some slaloming runs that opened up the away defence, but the team lacked a killer instinct in front of goal.
The best chance of the half fell to El Mizouni as he ran at goal with the defence back-tracking, but he couldn’t finish as a last-ditch block took all the sting out of the ball and tamely bounced into away keeper Jack Martin’s grateful hands.
After a tight first half, Ipswich came out on the front foot and with only two minutes on the clock, Dobra side footed them ahead.
Hughes made a lovely turn on the edge of the box that allowed him to burst through and square the ball, where Dobra took some time to compose himself before slotting into the bottom corner.
It was 2-0 approaching the hour mark as Kai Brown dusted himself off after being fouled on the by-line just inside the box, slotting the resultant spot kick confidently down the middle.
Town killed the tie two minutes later as the ball found a way to Hughes on the edge of the box and he beautifully curled it over the despairing out-stretched hand of Martin in goal.
Andover pressed in vain to get something out of the contest, but they never looked like scoring as Town completed the rout in the 77th minute.
The impressive Hughes found room down the left-hand side and curled in a delicious ball that was glanced into the bottom corner of net by Curtis, who had only been on the pitch a matter of moments.
Ipswich comfortably saw out the rest of the game without alarm, although Andover showed great spirit to keep going and trying to force a late consolation.
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