Everton are finding their feet under the guidance of Marco Silva and have a number of loanees away from the club looking to hone their skills with regular first-team action.
One of those is defender Matthew Pennington, who joined Ipswich Town during the summer and has since made 10 appearances for the Championship strugglers so far this season – scoring once and earning one red card.
The 24-year-old faces a stern challenge in the months ahead as the Tractor Boys are rooted to the bottom of the Championship but positive signs were shown in the weekend’s draw with Preston, which was the first game under the guidance of new manager Paul Lambert.
Many Ipswich fans took to social media after the match to heap praise on the youngster’s performance and expressed their confidence that Pennington will be a Premier League defender in the future.
We have gathered some of the best reactions below.
https://twitter.com/samueldwilliams/status/1058767853757890561
Thought we were unlucky today. Thought we played well, Pennington was brilliant and motm for me. Saturday is massive now #itfc
— Dan Harvey 🚜🚜 (@itfcdan01) November 3, 2018
Roberts, Sears and Pennington absolutely class today 💙 #ITFC
— Cameron (@lawseyitfc) November 3, 2018
https://twitter.com/Hockz1/status/1059068787729805312
Thought Roberts was superb today, along with Sears. MOTM for me was Pennington! Definitely improvements already and we will win games if we play like that! #itfc
— Kurtis Newcombe (@ITFCKurty) November 3, 2018
Thought Spence played very well, looked more like the player we originally signed. Chambers a real leader. Knudsen looked better too although at times still a bit wasteful with the ball. Pennington made a point saving tackle, timed to perfection. #itfc
— James Kindred (@James_Kindred) November 3, 2018
Roberts offered us a different option, Downes had a decent game. What a challenge by Pennington to save a certain goal. Gallagher scores with first touch, then goes in goal and that save 😡. Game officiated by the fourth official. What a crazy afternoon #itfc
— Dan Shelcot (@DanShelcot) November 3, 2018