West Brom stopper earns high praise from Sheehan following Coventry clean sheet

Luton keeper Alex Palmer earned high praise from first team coach Alan Sheehan for his efforts during Tuesday night’s 1-0 win at Coventry City.

The 25-year-old was only making his second appearance for the Hatters having joined on an emergency loan from Championship rivals West Bromwich Albion just a day before Town faced Middlesbrough at the weekend.

Palmer, who has had lengthy loan spells at Plymouth and Lincoln earlier in his career, was making his first senior appearance for almost seven months at the Riverside Stadium, beaten by Paddy McNair’s penalty and then Duncan Watmore’s low drive at his near post.

The former England youth stopper admitted he had been disappointed to concede in such a manner, but as far as errors go, there have been much worse ones made by Luton keepers over the years.

Starting once more at the Coventry Building Society Arena, Palmer looked on top of his game from early on, saving Matt Godden's effort and confidently claiming a number of dangerous crosses.

He then grabbed the first assist for a Town stopper since they returned to the second tier when his clearance was missed by a Sky Blues defender, allowing Elijah Adebayo to go through and score.

Palmer came into his own after the break, as with 10 minutes to go, he stood up well to deny Callum O’Hare and ensure he became the fourth Hatters custodian to keep a clean sheet this term, with the club now up to 15 in total, Luton climbing to sixth in the table.

If James She is now fit and that was to be his last game for the club, Sheehan said: "I thought he was fantastic, he came for crosses, really covering his box really well, his kicking was good.

"Sometimes coming into a club, I think he came in Friday before the Saturday in a real difficult venue against Middlesbrough, for him to come in, I thought he was outstanding tonight, in whatever he had to do.

"But along with the back three in front of him and Belly (Amari'i Bell) and Breesy (James Bree), everybody worked hard, everybody gave it everything.

"We did the basics really well and we proved that we’re really, really stubborn to beat.”

Captain for the night Pelly-Ruddock Mpanzu was also impressed with his new team-mate and the rest of Town's back-line, adding: "Our defensive record speaks for itself, the amount of clean sheets we’ve got, so once we go ahead, we rarely lose, we might draw the game.

"Al’s come in on an emergency loan, kept a clean sheet and done very well.

"We’ve got Locks (Tom Lockyer), Burkey (Reece Burke) and Pottsy (Dan Potts) played well today.

"Kal (Naismith) had to come out and everyone that comes in and slots in has done really well.”