Ipswich suffer major blow to Premier League survival losing 2-1 at home to bottom club Southampton

Ipswich lost the battle of the basement teams in the Premier League as Paul Onuachu struck the winning goal in the 87th minute at Portman Road this afternoon.

It was only Southampton’s second win of the season and first away victory but the 2-1 result kept Ipswich above them at the bottom of the table seven point ahead but crucially failed to move Town out of the relegation zone.

Joe Aribo opened the scoring for the Saints in the 21st minute only for Liam Delap to equaliser 10 minutes later.

With Town on top in the second half they failed to make their superiority count and were dealt a severe blow when Onuachu struck the winner in the closing stages. 

Ipswich made four changes to team that started last weekend’s 4-1 loss at Liverpool. 

In came goalkeeper Arijanet Muric, Jens Cajuste, Julio Enciso and Nathan Broadhead in place of Christian Walton (who was out of the squad and not on the bench), Wes Burns (injured at Anfield), Kalvin Phillips and Jaden Philogene, in what looked like a 4-2-3-1 formation for the Super Blues.

Meanwhile, Southampton, who were without a win in 13 Premier League matches and lost 3-1 at home to Newcastle last weekend, bought in fit-again Aaron Ramsdale who returned in goal along with debuts for January signings Welington Damascena Santos (a left back from Brazil) and Danish midfielder Albert Gronbaek with Alex McCarthy, Ryan Manning and Adam Armstrong dropping out.

It was a pulsating opening 10 minutes of the game with both sides trying to gain control.

New loanee from Brighton, Julio Enciso, had the first shot at goal which was comfortably held by Southampton and England international goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale while at the other end of the pitch Mateus Fernandes’ high deep ball into the box was confidently caught by Ipswich shot stopper Muric to cheers from the Town fans.

Enciso was at the heart of much of the Ipswich play helping to dictate the Town’s forward progression but it was the visitors who took the lead in the 21st minute with their first shot of the game through Aribo.

It came after Kyle Walker-Peters found Fernandes inside the penalty area and his cross fell to Aribo via a deflection off Ipswich centre back Jacob Greaves who fired past Music with the ball bouncing just in front of him.

Immediately afterwards Omari Hutchinson drived into the Saints penalty area and Taylor Harwood-Bellis dived in with the crowd screaming for a penalty but referee Michael Oliver ruled that the defender got a piece of the ball.

Hutchinson teased a deep cross from the right and Broadhead nodded the ball down for Delap who just toed the ball over the bar.

But Ipswich struck back 10 minutes after Southampton’s opening goal when Delap was put through on goal by Broadhead. He beat the Saints centre back Jan Bednarek and had just Ramsdale to confront and cooly slammed the ball past him and into the net.

Delap then turned provider when he set Broadhead away down the left side of the penalty box. He tried to dink the ball past Ramsdale on the angle but the England international goalkeeper spread himself to make the save.

Welington was the first to see a yellow card when he felled Axel Tuanzebe just outside the 18 yard area and Enciso’s free just missed the goal ending up in the side netting.

Just before the end of the half a super Town attack involving Delap and skipper Sam Morsy resulted in Hutchinson receiving the ball and his shot was held at the second attempt by Ramsdale.

Then Hutchinson had the chance to give Town the lead in added on time when he picked up a knocked down header from Delap but he just failed to pull the trigger before getting closed down.

Taylor Harwood-Bellis, who suffered an injury in the first 45 minutes, was replaced by Jack Stephens at the start of the second period but he was only on the field for 10 minutes when he too was injured and replaced by Will Smallbone.

Delap went down dramatically in the penalty area when challenged by Bednarek and Enciso fired just wide of the goal following a long throw routine involving Cajuste and Jacob Greaves.

Philogene replaced Broadhead in the 62nd minute and eight minutes later Kamaldeen Sulemana came on in place of Gronbaek.

Bednarek was yellow carded for a foul on Delap close to the D of the penalty area but Leif Davis’ free kick struck the wall.

Jack Taylor replaced Cajuste on 76 minutes while Tyler Dibling and Adam Lallana came on in place of Welington and Lesley Ugochukwu a minute later.

But Southampton, who had been under pressure for much of the second half, grabbed the winner through Nigerian international Onuachu.

Sulemana’s shot was kept out low down low by Muric but it was only deflected into the path of Onuachu who was there to snaffle the rebound much against the run of play.

Jack Clarke and George Hirst came on a minute after the Saints took the lead for Davis and Enciso but they could not help Ipswich grab a deserved equaliser.