Derby County 3 Ipswich Town 2THE Olympian torch may be flickering in Athens but Ipswich were unable to produce any gold medal form when beaten for the first time this season at Pride Park today.

By Elvin King

Derby County 3 Ipswich Town 2

THE Olympian torch may be flickering in Athens but Ipswich were unable to produce any gold medal form when beaten for the first time this season at Pride Park today.

Victory would have done manager Joe Royle's side the world of good, but now they face the prospect of playing catch up as they have had to do in their two previous seasons since relegation from the Premiership.

They were fortunate to go in at half time in this Coca Cola Championship match in the lead following a penalty conceded by Nathan Doyle and converted by Tommy Miller in the 40th minute.

Doyle made a harsh of a back pass three minutes later and Dean Bowditch came back to haunt former Town manager George Burley with his second goal of the season.

But after the break, with very little of the fluent passing game that has been associated with Town in recent seasons being shown they went under the cosh again.

It was an ordinary display from the visitors although to be fair Derby looked a competent side on an afternoon that their fans eventually thoroughly enjoyed.

Left sided player Marco Reich climbed above Drissa Diallo and Jason De Vos to head Derby ahead in the 37th minute, and Spanish playmaker Indigo Idiakez scored with a well taken free kick in the 58th minute.

The winner came from Reich eight minutes later when the Town defence opened up and his angled shot was able to roll into the unguarded net

ALSO in tonight's Green 'Un

COLCHESTER make it three out of three

KELVIN DAVIS on his teenage secret

IAN WESTLAKE on his England call-up

JASON DE VOS on Canada's Olympic chances