The 71-year-old footballing knight brought his squad back to Portman Road where he is still adored for a memorial game for Dale Roberts, the late Geordie coach at the Suffolk club.
But the warm welcome reserved for Robson certainly didn't extend to Bellamy, who was jeered throughout his 62 minutes because of his former connections with Ipswich's East Anglian rivals Norwich City.
It prompted the Toon boss to say: "Craig got the usual reception he seems to get at away grounds, but it's sad that I bring a team to my former club Ipswich and they boo one of my players.
"He's a top player, he looked sharp and brisk and I thought he had a fine match.
"I took him off just after the hour mark because he had an injury at the end of last season and I didn't want to kill him so early in the new campaign."
Waspish
Having missed United's Far East tour to Thailand and Hong Kong because of a minor knee complaint, this was Bellamy's first pre-season action and he was quickly back to his waspish best.
After only nine minutes he rose to head Laurent Robert's left-wing cross against the base of Town keeper Kelvin Davis's far post, before returning the compliment by setting up the French winger to blaze wide of goal eight minutes later.
The same pair provided first-half crosses that saw skipper Alan Shearer denied headed goals by two fine stops from Davis, but they combined to fruitful effect five minutes before the break when Bellamy's pull-back from the right-hand byline was nodded in by Robert at the back post.
Dovetailed
It cancelled out Shefki Kuqi's seventh minute opener, a regulation sidefoot finish from close range after Tommy Miller and Dean Bowditch had dovetailed to carve open Newcastle's backline with embarrassing ease.
Indeed, the Magpies defence hardly covered themselves in glory all night, and Ipswich's winning goal 18 minutes from time had a high element of farce about it.
Titus Bramble, one of three old Town boys in the visiting line-up along with Kieron Dyer and Darren Ambrose, failed to prevent Kuqi providing a low centre from the right, and when it dropped to Pablo Counago, the home substitute saw his shot ricochet off the legs of Andy O'Brien and the ball then spin through the legs of a deceived Steve Harper.
Robson, whose managerial successes at Portman Road are remembered by a statue of him outside the stadium, added: "We played very well in the first-half and should have had plenty of goals.
"We had three headers, one which hit the post and the other two forced great saves.
"Overall I'm not dissatisfied, it's not a competitive game and the result doesn't really hurt us.
"But we were off the boil a little in the second-half and not so penetrative as we'd been before the break."
n In your Gazette tomorrow ... preview of the weekend's NewcastleGateshead Cup featuring the Magpies, Rangers, Sporting Lisbon and Feyenoord.