The Championship’s automatic promotion race will be decided on Saturday. Ipswich’s hopes of killing Millwall’s and Middlesbrough’s chances stone dead were dashed at St Mary’s though this pulsating draw also did for Southampton.
A second half of bedlam had Cyle Larin score a goal that looked to have dashed Kieran McKenna’s hopes of completing the job before the weekend. Jack Clarke’s lashing finish from the edge of the Southampton box meant Saints must regroup for the playoffs. Clarke rattled a post in the chase for the goal that would all but elevate Ipswich. Instead, QPR, at Portman Road, will decide Ipswich’s destiny. How much more tension can they stand?
Two senior Southampton pros, in the suspended Flynn Downes and injured Jack Stephens, sat nervously chewing gum in the stands, just as they had at Wembley. If losing Saturday’s semi-final to Manchester City was a disappointment, it had been a close-run thing, a source of Hampshire pride. The setback had not prevented the club continuing their pre-match, 50th anniversary celebrations of the 1976 FA Cup triumph. City were the first team to beat Saints since 17 January. A 17-game Championship unbeaten streak had taken them from 14th to a live chance of automatic promotion in the final week of the regular season.
Ipswich beware. McKenna’s changes were sweeping, five alterations from Saturday’s draw with West Brom, another stall on a path to promotion that remained within Town’s gift but had become full of nerves. Just one win in four had slowed re-entry into the Premier League galaxy. The home fans replicated the noise they made at Wembley while those from Suffolk were just as rowdy. Ipswich offered the first threat, Jaden Philogene forcing a low save from Daniel Peretz in the early stages following a quick counterattack, as both teams threw themselves at an equation where a draw was little use to either team. Challenges were full-blooded, those in possession receiving little time to think, as is customary in the full-throttle world of a Championship both clubs wish to escape.
Larin, chasing a fifth goal in five Southampton starts, had his team’s first real effort, Christian Walton relieved to watch it drift over his crossbar, as he would when Ryan Manning whipped another shot over. Ipswich’s first-half attacks were far more sporadic though, during one flurry, Wes Burns wasted a chance to test Peretz. Another Philogene shot asked more of Saints’ keeper before Burns was again off target following Iván Azón’s buzzing run. Finn Azaz, scorer of a Wembley blockbuster, and Léo Scienza, Saints’ outlet down the left, grew in influence in a period beyond the half-hour mark towards half-time where Ipswich were hemmed back. When Azaz’s shot hit Daniel Furlong’s arm from close-range there were penalty shouts, waved away by a referee, Thomas Kirk, growing ever more unpopular with the locals.
If Ipswich aimed to escape last-day drama, Southampton’s equation had been win or bust since drawing with Bristol City last Tuesday. They approached the second half with vigour, Larin’s header forcing a fingertip Walton save. Not that Ipswich’s objectives were unclear. Azón’s header dropped to Burns after a Jacob Greaves interception had begun a well-executed pressing pincer movement. Burns’ finish was decisive, despite Peretz getting a hand to it.
With even less to lose Southampton surged onwards, and replied quickly. Greaves was booked for a hacking tackle on Azaz on the edge of the box. Manning’s low free-kick zipped through a poorly constructed wall, a deflection off Marcelino Núñez’s heel confounding Walton. Game – and multiple promotion possibilities – back on. After Shea Charles whipped a shot over the Ipswich goal, McKenna threw on Kasey McAteer and top-scorer Jack Clarke for Philogene and Burns, seeking freshness in his attack.
George Hirst was also added to the Ipswich attack as the evening, essentially an eliminator for Southampton, took on the frantic dimensions of a playoff. Larin, though, as Ipswich defenders and Walton lost their footing, kept his cool, from Manning’s pass, to score with the outside of his boot and blow the roof off the St Mary’s stands. The striker’s last act before being substituted would not prove decisive. Both teams have plenty more to stare down.
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