Ipswich boss Kieran McKenna lauds debutant keeper Alex Palmer after ‘hell of a journey’ | OneFootball

Ipswich boss Kieran McKenna hailed debutant goalkeeper Alex Palmer after his heroic performance in the 1-1 draw at Aston Villa.

Palmer, a deadline-day signing from Championship club West Brom, played in the top tier for the first time at the age of 28 and it was worth the wait as the 10 men of Ipswich held on for a valuable point.

He made a string of saves, including a last-gasp wonder stop, to keep Villa at bay after Liam Delap’s opener had been cancelled out by Ollie Watkins’ leveller.

Ipswich had to play for over 50 minutes with 10 men after Axel Tuanzebe was sent off for two yellow cards in the first half.

McKenna said of his goalkeeper: “It’s a brilliant day for him. I think it’s always worth taking stock.

“I’m not sure how many we’ve had, but we’re in the high teens for Premier League debuts. And every player who makes one is a hell of a story and a hell of a journey.

“And Alex is another player, certainly he’s had to work his way to this point.

“So making a Premier League debut at 28 after all the loans and everything that he’s done in his journey, and then to do it back in the midlands and to perform like he did, make some of the saves that he did, and to end up helping the team get a point – it’s a great day for him and a great start for us.

“He’s worked his way up, done the hard yards to get to the Premier League. He’s got his opportunity now and he certainly took it today.

“We needed to strengthen the department and Alex has different qualities and is in a good rhythm.

“He’s played almost every minute of the last couple of seasons. So to bring in a goalkeeper who’s in match rhythm and confident at this stage of the season, and he’s played with two of the back four today as well, is pretty good business.”

Villa will see this as two points dropped in their bid to qualify for the Champions League again.

Boss Unai Emery threw Marcus Rashford on at half-time and the Manchester United loanee was involved in the equaliser as his free-kick cannoned into the crossbar for Watkins to score the rebound.

“He is getting better. He was feeling comfortable as well today, 45 minutes, and he will help us for the next matches,” Emery said.

On the result, the Spaniard added: “After the sending-off the match changed completely.

“After the situation we were controlling more, creating chances. They scored a fantastic goal and then to come back was more difficult.

“We equalised and after we had chances to score. We have to accept the result, they avoided our chances to score.

“This point is not enough for us. We have to move forward thinking how we can improve and get better.”