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16 hours ago
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The Championship’s automatic promotion race will go down to the final day. Ipswich’s plans of reducing Millwall’s hopes to an unlikely mathematical scenario and eliminating Middlesbrough’s altogether were dashed at St Mary’s. A pulsating draw played amid extreme tension and the highest of stakes did for Southampton’s chances of second place.
Late bedlam saw Cyle Larin score for Southampton, leaving Kieran McKenna’s hopes of completing the job before Saturday’s finale looking bleak. A rescue mission was now required, and it arrived through Jack Clarke’s lashing late finish.
Clarke rattled a post soon after in the frantic chase for a winning goal that would have elevated Ipswich back to the Premier League. “You probably can’t come much closer to getting promoted than we were at the end, it was a matter of inches,” lamented McKenna who took solace in the adrenaline rush from what he had just witnessed. “An outstanding game, one of the best certainly in my time here, certainly in the Championship.”
He will know his fate by 3pm on Saturday. Facing QPR, at Portman Road, will decide Ipswich’s destiny. How much more of this tension can either club stand? Southampton must regroup for the ultimate jeopardy, the pleasure-pain principle of the playoffs.
“Two top teams, we tried absolutely everything to win the game of football,” said Tonda Eckert, the Southampton manager. “We have clarity now and we need to get ready.”
As at Wembley, Eckert’s team were a credit to a manager only appointed in November. If Saints losing Saturday’s semi-final to Manchester City had been a disappointment, it had been a close-run thing. There, City became the first team to beat Saints since 17 January. Their unbeaten league run extends to 18 matches, form that must be sustained, with Wembley again on the horizon.
For Ipswich, St Mary’s represented another stall on a path to promotion that has become a nervous attempted re-entry into the Premier League galaxy. “It’s another opportunity to achieve the goal we set at the start of the year,” said Clarke, casting forward to QPR. His manager previewed Saturday as having the “potential to be a very special day”.
“If you want to make an advertisement for the Championship I think that was the game to watch,” said Eckert, another for positivity with so much ahead to consider. From the start, challenges were full-blooded, those in possession given no time to think, as is customary in the full-throttle world of a Championship both clubs so dearly wish to escape.
Larin, later to score his fifth goal in five Southampton starts, had his team’s first real effort. Ipswich’s first-half attacks were sporadic even if, during one flurry, Wes Burns wasted a pair of decent chances. For Southampton, Finn Azaz, scorer of a Wembley blockbuster, and Léo Scienza, Saints’ outlet down the left, grew in influence as the first half was played out.
Southampton’s equation had been win or bust since drawing with Bristol City the previous Tuesday. They approached the second half with suitable vigour, Larin’s header forcing a fingertip Walton save. Ipswich’s objectives were just as clear. They made the breakthrough when Iván Azón’s header dropped to Burns after a Jacob Greaves interception had begun a pressing pincer movement. Burns’ finish was decisive where he had previously been wasteful.
Now with even less to lose Southampton surged forwards in numbers, to quickly equalise. Manning’s low free-kick zipped through a poorly constructed wall, the deflection off Marcelino Núñez’s heel confounding Christian Walton. Game – and multiple promotion possibilities – back on. After Shea Charles whipped a rising shot over the Ipswich goal, McKenna threw on Kasey McAteer with top scorer and talisman Clarke.
George Hirst was also added to the Ipswich attack, as the evening took on the chaotic energy dimensions of an actual playoff game. As Ipswich defenders and Walton lost their footing, Larin kept his cool to convert from Manning’s pass.
“We showed where we are as a team, that we are able to turn games back in our direction,” said Eckert. If Ipswich do fall through the playoff trapdoor, Saints have given McKenna plenty to fear should they be reunited. Much yet to be decided, many twists await.
