Aston Villa’s supporters were hoping to see an inspired Premier League debut for a new club and they were rewarded. Unfortunately, it was neither Marcus Rashford nor Marco Asensio that shone brightest, instead visiting goalkeeper Alex Palmer stole the show with a string of superb saves to earn 10-man Ipswich a hard-fought point.
Liam Delap gave the away side a shock lead as Rashford’s former schoolmate Axel Tuanzebe had been sent off for two bookable offences but Ollie Watkins was on hand to equalise from one of his side’s many chances.
The match, however, could have been very different. Palmer was signed from West Brom last month by Ipswich to bring calm between the posts. But the experienced goalkeeper almost started life in the top flight disastrously in the opening two minutes. He hesitated when coming out for a ball over the top, allowing Morgan Rogers the advantage; Palmer eventually sprinted out of his box but the Aston Villa forward knocked the ball past him and went over, there was minimal contact but a firmer referee might have penalised the goalkeeper and sent him off.
If anyone thought this was an omen for Palmer’s Ipswich career, they were very much mistaken. The goalkeeper made numerous top-quality saves after his team had been reduced to 10 men when Tuanzebe was dismissed. Palmer’s route to the top has come through seven loan spells, stopping off at Kidderminster and Oldham, among others. “A brilliant day for him,” the Ipswich head coach, Kieran McKenna, said. “He’s had to work his way to this point. 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 then to perform like he did, make some of the saves that he did and to end up helping the team get a point. Great day for him and a great start for us.”
Prior to Rob Jones dishing out the red card in the 40th minute, Villa had been on top but failed to threaten Palmer’s goal. After Tuanzebe left the field, Villa upped the attacking stakes, pushing Ipswich back inside their own box. The visitors had Palmer to thank for keeping things level with a deft reaction save to tip over a Rogers shot from close range.
The home supporters were given their first glimpse of Rashford as a Villa player in the Premier League at the start of the second half. It was another striker that left Manchester for a fresh start that opened the scoring. Omari Hutchinson stayed onside on the right and beat Ian Maatsen on the outside before crossing for former City striker Delap to poke home his 10th of the season and create bedlam in the away end.
There was noise from all sections when Maatsen let fly moments later, only to see Palmer produce a stunning save to stop the ball pummelling the netting. For Ipswich, the only thing they could do from this point was waste as much time as possible and put the remaining 10 players behind the ball in the hope of keeping Villa at bay, though their task was complicated by Asensio’s arrival.
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From the moment the opener went in, it was a case of attack v defence, helped by another Manchester loanee, Kalvin Phillips, marshalling the visiting midfield. Ipswich battled and scrapped but this resulted in Phillips committing a foul on the edge of the area. Rashford assaulted the bar with a vicious free-kick and Watkins was the quickest to react, jabbing into an empty net but the draw leaves Villa ninth. “After the sending off the match changed,” Aston Villa’s manager, Unai Emery, said. “This point is not enough for us but we have to move forward thinking how we can improve, how we can get better and trying to reduce the gap we have with the teams in front of us.”
Rashford caused a lot of problems and almost created a 93rd-minute winner when his pullback was turned towards goal by a mixture of Rogers and the Ipswich defender Conor Townsend, but it was fitting that Palmer had the final say in front of his mother in the crowd, clawing the ball behind to ensure 18th-placed Ipswich left on a high as their supporters chanted: “We are staying up” at the full-time whistle.
