As afternoons go, you’ll be hard pressed to find a worse one for an individual than Harry Clarke’s trip to Brentford on Saturday.
The Ipswich Town defender was part of a side which were 2-0 up and cruising shortly before half-time… and then it all went wrong, for him in particular.
After the Bees pulled one back, Clarke was then unfortunately positioned to steer past his own goalkeeper to allow the hosts to go in at half-time level.
In the second half, things got even worse for him as he gave away a penalty which allowed Brentford to take the lead, the decision made after a VAR check.
And then to top off a disastrous day as things truly plummeted to rock bottom, he was shown a second yellow card and sent off with 20 minutes of the game remaining.
To sum up that is: own goal, penalty conceded, red card – making him only the second player in league history ever to do so.
2 – Harry Clarke is just the second player in Premier League history to score an own goal, concede a penalty and be sent off in the same Premier League match after Jan Bednarek with Southampton against Manchester United in February 2021. Trinity. #BREIPS pic.twitter.com/1DM8OrCp7H
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) October 26, 2024
The fact that it happened on his first ever top flight start perhaps edges out even Jan Bednarek in the disastrous stakes.
📸 Alex Pantling – 2024 Getty Images