Premier League star equals unwanted record on first start after nightmare 25-minute spell

Ipswich Town defender was handed a first Premier League start by Kieran McKenna against , only to endure the kind of game any player would have nightmares about.

Clarke, a 23-year-old full-back, was part of the Ipswich team which won back-to-back promotions under McKenna. He was made to wait for a opportunity after injury though, making his first appearance in the competition when he came on for Dara O'Shea in last week's defeat against .

The former academy talent did enough for McKenna to trust him from the start at the Gtech Community Stadium, and the Tractor Boys were cruising at 2-0 shortly before the break. Less than half an hour later, though, it had all started to go wrong for Ipswich and for Clarke in particular.

After Yoane Wissa halved the deficit, Clarke turned into his own net under pressure from the Congolese forward to make it 2-2 at the break. He then conceded a penalty for a pull on Keane Lewis-Potter early in the second period, receiving a yellow card for his troubles, and another foul on Lewis-Potter saw him shown a second yellow - and then a red card - before 70 minutes were on the clock.

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Clarke is just the second player in Premier League history to score an own goal, concede a penalty and receive a red card in one Premier League match. The other was Jan Bednarek, though his red card in Southampton's 9-0 defeat at in 2021 .

Bryan Mbeumo converted Brentford's penalty, meaning Thomas Frank's side were a goal and a man to the good for the final 21 minutes. That didn't stop Ipswich drawing level, though, with top scorer Liam Delap bagging his fourth of the season inside the final five minutes.

There was more drama to come, though. Mbeumo scored his second deep into stoppage-time when his cross evaded everyone and nestled in the back of the net, and there was still time for Delap to fire against the post as Ipswich came desperately close to snatching a point.

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"Two nil at half time would have been good, three nil almost perfect, but you know here the game is not done," Ipswich boss McKenna told Match of the Day after his team's defeat. "We did so many things right across the game, on and off the ball and with eleven and ten men which will stand us in good stead going forwards, and if we do those things we will give ourselves a chance."

"The biggest thing is psychologically. We have had so many last minute issues and injuries where we have had to change plans, right up until this morning at the hotel, so there has been a massive disruption from five or six days ago. We are having debuts every week, so how the players performed individually was superb.

"We suffered when we had to suffer, we were aggressive when we had the chance and we were resilient too. A lot of things we did were excellent, not perfect because if it was we would not concede the goals but that is what we now need to work on."

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