Blues assistant boss Martyn Pert was pleased with Town’s performance as they beat Bristol Rovers 2-0 in the Carabao Cup, particularly after manager Kieran McKenna changed his entire XI from Sunday’s opener at Sunderland.

Debutant Jack Taylor and sub Sone Aluko netted the goals as the Blues comfortably beat the League One side.

“Very pleasing,” Pert said. “It was a good performance. Obviously, we’re through to the next round, it was good to get the result and get through to the next round.

“The performance I thought was good, particularly as we’ve changed the whole team. It shows the level that the lads have been working at for the last six weeks, that they can work and understand the structure and everything that we want, and they can go and deliver a performance like that, so very pleasing.”

Asked whether it was reassuring that the whole team can change and the performance remain at a high level, Pert added: “Yes. A lot of the players have been here a while, so they understand the way we’re going to play. But we’ve Jack [Taylor], Omari [Hutchinson], the goalkeeper Cieran [Slicker], they’ve come into the team, Elkan [Baggott]’s not played a lot for us, he was away last year on loan.

“Those players, to come into the team and to play in a similar structure how we normally play is really pleasing. It was a good night.”

Regarding keeper Slicker, another debutant following his summer move from Manchester City, Pert said: “He’s a confident lad, his qualities suit the way we play, that’s why we looked at him and why Reg [goalkeeper-coach Rene Gilmartin] did so much work on him to see whether the way he plays suits us. He’s a good, young goalkeeper.”

Regarding the goals, he added: “I really enjoyed the first one. The end of the move was attractive but the build-up to it was good as well.

“And then the cross and the dummy and I thought it was a really clean finish. You don’t see it coming because of the stepover from Omari and Jack was nice and composed when he connected with it and we know that’s one of Jack’s qualities is arriving into the box and scoring goals.

“The second goal, I thought George [Hirst] made a nice run and then we found him and he was clever enough to pick out the pull back and a great finish from Sone, side-foot, going across him back the other way. A really good finish.”

Taylor looked like he’s been playing for Town for some years rather than having come in during the summer from Peterborough.

“He missed the first week in pre-season but he’s had six weeks now of really getting to know the players and also the way that we play,” Pert continued. “That’s a credit to him that he’s really concentrated on learning the approach and the style and the structure of the way we played.

“He fitted in well and Evo [Lee Evans] obviously helped him with that because he captained the team and I thought he led quite well tonight with him and Jack in there. Good from Jack.”

Town, who are now unbeaten in 19 in all competitions, have started the campaign with two wins. Does that boost confidence? “Certainly the win at the weekend brings confidence because we did in a different way, resilience against a tough opponent and a tough place to go and win.

“Tonight, with everyone changed, you’ve seen these games when you’ve changed the whole team, sometimes they don’t go particularly well because the continuity’s not there in the performance, but the continuity was fantastic tonight. It was a real team performance considering we made so many changes. There’ll be a real confidence.”

Pert was pleased to be back at Portman Road: “For sure, 15,000 tonight, I imagine it’ll be a full house on Saturday. The pitch is good, the investment they’ve made around the pitch and the tunnel area looks nice, so it was good to be back.

“I haven’t really spoken to [the players] tonight on the surface, other than, like, ‘Good, good, good’ but yesterday we trained here and they were pleased with it.”

Kyle Edwards was a notable absentee from the squad and Pert says the winger was fit and training this morning.

“He trained well this morning, he trained well with the ground,” he said. “We had a small group do some tactical work this morning, he trained well this morning.”

Quizzed on whether it’s difficult to get everyone into the squad at the moment, he added: “It’s tough and there’s some young players who deserved it as well. They’ve been with is, Leon [Ayinde], Zak [Bradshaw], Ryan [Carr], they’ve been with us helping out in pre-season, so they got on the bench as well.

“We had Sone on the bench, we have Cam Humphreys on the bench, who came on and did well. I thought Cam was good, Sone was good when they came on.

“Obviously Hirsty and Chappers, and it was nice to see Harry [Clarke] back, he’s missed a couple of weeks, so it was good to see him back on the pitch.”

With such a big squad, is the challenge of managing expectations one you and McKenna relish? “Yes, that’s what you want as a coach, really. You want good players in the squad and you want people that can do a job, like they did tonight. That’s what you want.

“I think I said yesterday, that our idea all the time is just to improve all the players. I think you keep the players relatively happy, obviously they want to play as many minutes as they can but you keep them relatively happy, we’re trying to just help them improve all the time and they know we really care for their development.

“I enjoy that part of it, dealing with the emotions of a player not playing because that’s what a player wants to do and helping him along that journey.”

Is that level of competition key to what you want to achieve? “I think anyone would say that, you want competition for places, it gives you a little bit of an edge that you know there’s someone behind you, not necessarily behind you but someone is competing with you for your position all the time and it gives you a little bit of an edge to deliver your best performance. I think that’s when you get your best performance when you’ve got a competitive squad.”

Asked about the atmosphere in the stands, Pert said: “The fans were great on Saturday, it was difficult to hear them with how high they were up there, but you could definitely hear them and they enjoyed it, I could see that when we came out of the ground. And today, the crowd seemed right behind the team and certainly in an upbeat mood.”

Photo: TWTD

Monkey_Blue added 00:04 - Aug 10 He said Edwards was fit and trained well… and yet he can’t make a 9 man bench when we changed the whole team!
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Karlosfandangal added 00:41 - Aug 10 Edwards is a puzzle Slicker looked good we have 3 good keepers, Hutchins seems to want to take one touch too much but early days. Taylor looked ok But early days. As soon as Hurst and Chaplin came on we looked so much better. Town dominated the first half and then looked like they relaxed too much at the start of the second half but never looked in danger. Good depth in the squad. Great Result

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Gilesy added 06:16 - Aug 10 Is Edwards off then?
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troyparrotsleftear added 06:26 - Aug 10 Why is this bloke doing press and not McKenna? Disappointing tbh
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slade1 added 07:05 - Aug 10 troyparrotsleftear, Its always the case (well normally) that Pert fronts the press in these sorts of games. It happened last season too, and why not?
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BurleysGloryDays added 07:18 - Aug 10 Maybe Edwards has some ground to make up. Or they’re asking him to do something different and he needs some training ground time on it. Or he’s just a safe squad player and they’re assessing others who need decisions on loans etc.
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NthQldITFC added 07:22 - Aug 10 Why hasn't Troy Parrot left 'ere yet? One reason the excellent Martyn Pert is doing the post match is that, whilst it's a very useful work out for players, it's a second-grade competition. The fact that this second-grade competition is the only competition that some lower-level clubs have won, means very little to Ipswich Town fans.
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rugbytomc added 07:59 - Aug 10 Really pleased the team is so gelled and agree with his comments about changing a team. I’ll be honest I’ll be sad if Edwards goes. Certainly looks like his days are numbered
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Marinersnose added 09:43 - Aug 10 A very good workout against a tired looking Rovers side. We played some excellent football at times and both goals were extremely well worked. How many players made a case for a Championship start ? For me Taylor was impressive and Hutchinson also showed excellent quality. Baggott and Edmundson both looked comfortable the former doing well passing through the lines for Hirst to setup Aluko for a fine finish. Slicker pulled off two decent saves and was superb with the ball at his feet. Definitely a future prospect. Evans looked well off the pace and apart from a couple of trademark passes he was sloppy with the ball. Ladapo also didn’t look threatening and his touch was often too heavy. He also missed a couple of goal scoring opportunities when he should’ve done better.Leigh was decent but ran out of steam. For me the player who really impressed was Humphrey’s when introduced as a substitute. He was so good in possession and his passing was accurate and well weighted. This lad could still push for a start as he definitely has the ability. It was against lesser opponents but credit to him for making a statement. Good win and a clean sheet. Roll on Saturday.

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budgieplucker added 10:01 - Aug 10 It is what it is, an attempt to get game time to the rest of the squad, and to be honest it looked more like a pre-season friendly. Yes we moved the ball about nicely but until we made the substitutions in the second half we lacked a cutting edge and couldn’t seem to up the tempo. It’s easy to speculate about players not making the second 11, but both Aluko and Cameron Humphreys who came on started to have more of a positive influence on the team and a desire to up the tempo, they for me look much closer to a first team start to me then many of those who started. Harry Clarke also added to this with also providing a Duracell bounce. Hirst definitely gives us a better focal point up front. Freddie whilst learning the lone striker role has historically been a more successful second striker, and I don’t think Kieron is going to change his system to accommodate those strengths when he has the likes of Chaplin and Broadhead who are more adaptable and can drop deeper to play the number ten role. Clearly 2 or 3 will need to move on to make squad room for new incomers. For me I am pleased to see Elkan has bulked his 6’5” frame up and is starting to look that he has the additional physical attributes to take him forward. He played some good football in Austria when the games were more technical, however, I would like to see him go out on loan for the season to learn and get plenty of practice dealing with the physical side of the game as he still seems is if he could make better use of these attributes and not always dominate attackers who he has a couple of inches advantage over. I think the fact that Slicker got man of the match award does say something, Bristol hardly got out of their half for the first 45 minutes but grew in confidence second half and gave us a few uncomfortable moments until we upped the tempo.

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budgieplucker added 10:34 - Aug 10 @marinersnose agree with your comments re Cameron Humphreys. For me 9 of the first 11’s outfield players pick themselves and whilst we have a strong squad and I didn’t think anyone played badly last night generally I didn’t see enough of the players having the extra energy and desire to make a claim for replacing any of the 9. This is not say any of the team last night couldn’t come in and do a really good job. I liked what I saw of Taylor, however, I am not sure many would look at replacing Morsy and Mass, who add a warrior mentally to the team (which I think was missing last night, lots of nicely nicely play yes). The skipper and Mass pairing I believe gave us the stability to put in that terrific run from mid February and both for me were outstanding again on Saturday as experienced Championship campaigners. Taylor may have to play further forward as eluded by KM, but who do you replace out of Chaplin, Broadhead?

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