Reuters
[ Source : Reuters ]
A Liam Delap goal helped Ipswich Town overcome a red card for Axel Tuanzebe as they grabbed a 1-1 Premier League draw away to Aston Villa on Saturday, with Ollie Watkins netting a 69th-minute equaliser for the home side.
With keeper Alex Palmer putting in a brilliant performance between the posts, the point leaves Ipswich still in the relegation zone in 18th place on 17 points, two behind Wolverhampton Wanderers, while Villa slip to ninth on 38 points.
Both sides were forced into early changes as Aston Villa defender Boubacar Kamara was replaced by Tyrone Mings and Ipswich lost winger Julio Enciso, with Jack Clarke coming on to take his place.
It took until the 25th minute before Ipswich’s Kalvin Phillips registered the game’s first shot in target.
Villa looked the more dangerous of the two sides and they should have gone ahead when Ollie Watkins got in behind the defence in the 34th minute, but under pressure from Dara O’Shea he dragged his left-foot shot wide of the far post.
Ipswich defender Tuanzebe saw red six minutes later when he picked up his second yellow card for dragging down Youri Tielemans just outside the box, seemingly leaving his teammates with a mountain to climb.
However, the muscular Delap tore up that script and scored with a deft first-time finish from Omari Hutchinson’s cross 11 minutes into the second half to give the Tractor Boys a shock lead.
Marcus Rashford, who came off the bench at halftime, smacked a powerful free kick off the crossbar and Watkins did superbly to react quickest and steer the ball into the net.
That was the only blemish on the performance of Palmer in the Ipswich goal, and he proceed to pull off a string of brilliant saves to ensure that his side left Villa Park with a point.
“To go down to 10 men and perform how we did, we would have loved to win, but it took an incredible free kick and the ball to ricochet right to their player to hold us to a draw. A great squad effort,” Ipswich boss Kieran McKenna said.
