Kieran McKenna was unhappy with referee Robert Jones after Ipswich drew 1-1 with Aston Villa at Villa Park on Saturday afternoon.

Ollie Watkins’ 69th-minute goal spared Aston Villa’s blushes in the West Midlands after Liam Delap had earlier put the 10 men of Ipswich ahead in the 56th minute.

The Premier League strugglers were left a man down in the 40th minute when Axel Tuanzebe was shown a second yellow card for a challenge on Morgan Rogers outside of the Villa box.

After the game, Ipswich boss McKenna hit out at the decision to send Tuanzebe off.

Keith Hackett agrees with McKenna after Aston Villa v Ipswich incident

As quoted by BBC Sport, McKenna said it was a “poor” decision by Jones to dish out Tuanzebe’s first yellow card when he clearly won the ball first in a challenge on Rogers.

The Northern Irishman suggested that the referee was too quick to book the former Aston Villa loanee, something which ex-PGMOL general manager Keith Hackett agrees with.

“The referee could not have been in a better position to judge this challenge and he could easily have avoided issuing that first yellow card,” Hackett told Villa News.

“Rogers turned Tuanzebe, who got a slight touch of the ball and then made minimum contact with his opponent.

“Referee Jones was, in my opinion, too quick to pull out his card – a quiet word would have been sufficient.

“Already on a yellow, Tuanzebe’s second challenge was a foul and yellow card offence.

“Ipswich cannot appeal a yellow card so the player will serve a ban.

“It was rather harsh given the circumstances of what I consider to be a cheap first yellow that was avoidable.”

Aston Villa luck balances out v Ipswich

There’s no doubt that the first booking for Tuanzebe was a harsh one but, as Hackett said, the second one was a poor challenge by the 27-year-old DR Congo international, who pulled Rogers back when there was no need to.

That was a good slice of fortune for Aston Villa. However, despite that, they failed to capitalise and Unai Emery’s side ended up dropping points against Ipswich – one of the weaker sides in the league – at home.

Former West Brom goalkeeper Alex Palmer was incredible in goals for Ipswich as he kept out several second-half chances before pulling off an incredible last-gasp save in stoppage time to earn his side a point.