IT IS impossible, surely, that Southampton will dig themselves out of trouble.
But at the very least, having secured only their second win of the season and opening three points under new boss Ivan Juric, Saints will not be setting an unwanted Premier League record this season.
Paul Onuachu stunned Ipswich by grabbing an unlikely 87th minute winner after Liam Delap cancelled out Joe Aribo’s opening goal.
As you would expect, Southampton’s fans – having witnessed six successive top-flight losses – were in jubilant mood at the end while Michael Oliver’s final whistle was met with jeers from the home crowd.
This means Saints on nine points so are still some way off safety.
But over the next few weeks, however bad they might be – and they really are not very good – Southampton will overtake Derby’s embarrassing, record-low tally of 11 points from the 2007-08 season.
In what has been a terrible season, you can understand why many believed Southampton were going to be crowned worst of the worst.
As for Ipswich, this was a really poor result.
And, they could not end up getting a complex against south coast clubs.
They were leading Bournemouth 1-0 here in December until the 87th minute and they ended up losing 2-1.
But this defeat was even worse as it was against a side Ipswich really needed to beat if they were to have realistic hopes of staying up.
Kieran McKenna’s team could still do it, but it will not be easy.
The problem is that despite their possession, Ipswich have little goal threat, other than £20million summer signing Delap, and while he has struck nine times, he cannot do everything on his own.
The other problem is that Ipswich have bungling keeper Aro Muric in goal for the next month due to an injury to Christian Walton.
Muric could have done better for both goals in what was a hugely frustrating day for McKenna with Ipswich having failed to win any of their last five Premier League games.
Saints took the lead when Mateus Fernandes’ cross took a heavy deflection off home defender Jacob Greaves and it fell perfectly for Aribo.
He had arrived inside the area completely unchallenged, something which will infuriate McKenna.
Aribo’s volley took a bounce before Muric made a terrible attempt to keep the ball out and the Kosovan gave the impression he was trying to usher it into the net.
Delap, having wasted one chance to equalise, swept the ball past Aaron Ramsdale after overcoming a feeble challenge from Southampton centre-half Jan Bednarke after a superbly-weighted through ball by Nathan Broadhead.
Juric replaced Taylor Harwood-Bells at the break for Jack Stephens but the club skipper – who had not played for nearly two months due to suspension and injury – was on the pitch for just 11 minutes before needing to be replaced by Will Smallbone due to a muscle injury.
Ipswich will be disappointed at not testing Ramsdale more in the second half although when they did, Delap fired straight at the England keeper’s feet.
And at the end, disaster struck for the Tractor Boys when Muric could only parry a shot from Kamaldeen Sulemana into the path of Onuachu who was never going to miss.
At the end, Southampton’s fans sang “can we play you every week” and little wonder.
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