Ipswich Town Under-21s - John McGreal on defeat to Peterborough United | East Anglian Daily Times

The young Blues travelled to Cambridgeshire knowing that they needed a result to keep their hopes of progressing to the knock-out stages alive, but, despite a competitive start, they were blown away by four goals around the half-hour mark.

Striker Harry Leonard bagged a brace – one from the penalty spot after he was fouled – and had his hat-trick goal disallowed in first-half stoppage time. Harry Ashfield and Ethan Williams also found the back of the net, scoring superb goals from range to kill off the game.

While Town recovered and got a goal back after the break, it wasn’t enough to take any points.

“For the first 25 minutes, I thought we were very good,” McGreal told the EADT and Ipswich Star.

“I thought we were in the game. I think the plan was to try and learn from the Luton game [a 6-0 defeat] and I thought we were more competitive, I thought we were more at it, in a way.

A penalty from Harry Leonard saw the floodgates open in Cambridgeshire (Image: Ross Halls)

“Then we gave a penalty away, which was a poor tackle, Leon [Elliott] knows that.

“Soon after that, we've not cleared our lines, it comes out to them and he [Ashfield] puts it into the top corner on the outside of his foot.

“Then you're trying to regroup, and before you know it, their tails are up. New manager, crowd's going, and then it's a hard half.

“Within nine minutes, there's a drastic change in it. To get the game back in the second half – we put one or two things together at half time, to try and win a game of football, stay in the game.

“It could have looked a bit like the Luton game, so there's definitely a learning from that respect, and I thought we just pushed ourselves further up the pitch. I think that's all it was, just go a little bit more man for man, be brave, trust each other.

“I thought you could see that in the second half, where the lads gave a good account of themselves. When we went to 4-1, you could see them [Peterborough] rock a little bit, there's no question of it.

“Then they changed it, they brought the subs on, they changed it to 4-4-2. We were really well in the game at that time, we just needed maybe another chance or two to try and get the goal, but the second half showed a tonne of character.

The young Blues travel to Colchester United next month despite exiting the EFL Trophy (Image: Ross Halls)

“We spoke a lot about the Luton game, how much it hurt, and even that first half there, it's just a window of nine minutes where the game gets taken away.

“It's one where we continue talking about learning, but I thought we did learn. A lot of staff in the room there are saying that the second half was really promising for us.”

Ipswich’s goal came through Luca Fletcher, who ran onto Charlie Compton’s excellent cross-field pass before firing past Alex Bass into the back of the net.

Despite muted celebrations, it’s a key milestone for him – his first senior goal.

“It's a big one for him,” McGreal said.

“We spoke about it at half-time, the diagonal ball. We kept hitting the channel ball at times and they kept mopping that up.

“I just said to the players, ‘use the diagonal and get Luca running, because he's a quick boy’.

“It's a great pick by Charlie Compton. Luca was in exactly the same position against Luton, where we were 1-0 down and the ‘keeper saves it.

Luca Fletcher scored his first goal in senior football in the second half of the game (Image: Ross Halls)

“He made sure he slotted that today, so that's great learning for him and I'm delighted for him.”

Asked how he reflects on the EFL Trophy campaign, taking Ipswich’s U21s into it for the first time in their history, McGreal replied: “It's a brutal competition.

“In a way, we've got to be prepped right at times. At the break, we've asked them to go and win the second half.

“I know it's only 45 minutes, but again, it’s a young team, even with Jack [Taylor] in there, but it's really good learning for us.

“I think the diversity of the games programme that we've got this year, because the lads did exceptionally well last year, it just gives them so many different learnings in Premier League Cup, PL2, International Cup coming up soon, the National League Cup, the EFL Trophy.

“We've still got a game to go [at Colchester on Nov 10], a game that we want to try and win. It's brilliant learning for these young lads and this young team.”