Ipswich star drops ‘worst performance in Prem history’ with red card, own goal and giving penalty away on first start

HARRY CLARKE suffered a nightmare first Premier League start with the most unwanted hat-trick.

The Ipswich defender, 23, got the nod from Kieran McKenna for the trip to Brentford.

But the right-back could not have had a worse afternoon at the Gtech Community Stadium.

It had all started well for Clarke and his Tractor Boys team-mates as they took a 2-0 lead, looking on course for their first win of the season – as fellow Premier League full debutant George Hirst scored.

However, ex-Arsenal academy ace and England Under-17 international Clarke inadvertently ensured they would not secure all three points.

Yoane Wissa pulled the first Brentford goal back on 44 minutes.

Then in the first minute of injury time, Wissa looked for goal again – as the defender slid in to try and clear.

Instead, unlucky Clarke only managed to knock the ball over the line with his arm as the Bees equalised.

They then took the lead six minutes into the second half from the penalty spot – after Clarke was penalised for pulling Keane Lewis-Potter down.

Initially, a free-kick was awarded and a yellow card brandished – before VAR took a look and overruled for a spot-kick, which Bryan Mbeumo duly dispatched.

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And Clarke’s horror game culminated in a second yellow card and subsequent red for diving in on Lewis-Potter on 69 minutes.

As a result, he became just the second player in Premier League history to achieve the triple whammy of scoring an own goal, giving a penalty away and being sent off.

The first was Jan Bednarek against Manchester United in Southampton’s thumping 9-0 defeat in February 2021.

And fans were quick to take to social media to react to Clarke’s dreaded debut.

One said: “Harry Clarke has got to hold the record for the worst game ever by a PL player. You gotta feel for him.”

Another wrote: “Harry Clarke has had an absolute nightmare today.”

A third added: “Harry Clarke will never forget this day.”

And a final user joked: “Harry Clarke’s first ever Premier League start going well then.”

To make matters worse, after Liam Delap looked to have rescued a point for Ipswich, Clarke could only watch on helplessly as Mbeumo’s cross ended up in the back of the net for a 96th-minute winner.

Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk