Two things that Saints & Ipswich fans seemed to agree on after the game, firstly it was a fair result & secondly that the referee was awful, but the draw probably suited Southampton more than the home side.
Will Still seemed to have realised his sides defensive frailties from last weeks win over Wrexham and he made a change in the back three, what he didn't do though was solve them and the addition of Taylor Harwood- Bellis, in for Ronnie Edwards, still left us unbalanced.
This was evident from the first minute, Ipswich came out of the traps fast and seemed to have a plan to unsettle us early doors and it worked, we were behind with only 4 minutes on the clock, a slack pass from Welington, saw a poor decision from Quarshie who opted to let the ball run behind him and and Hirst for the Tractor Boys nipped in and put in a dangerous cross that caught us out and eventually rebounded into the goal off Harwood- Bellis.
It was chaos and in the early stages as the home side pressed and forced errors, you worried for Saints.
The real was down our left flank, Joshua Quarshie was having one of those games where he could do nothing right, his distribution was terrible and he wasn't helped by Welington in front of him, who himself had played him into trouble for the goal.
But after this setback we regained our composure and got back into the game just before the half our mark, a superb cross from Ryan Fraser strangely playing on the right, found Jay Robinson with a fantastic leap planting a firm header past the keeper to level the scores.
However it seemed at times the referee had money on a win for the Tractor Boys, he seemed to give nothing to Saints and if he had to give a decision, then it was to the home side, we should have had a stonewall penalty when Adam Armstrong was thrown to the floor, but the referee Robert Madley, a man not without experience of controversy strangely waved play on, this was not the only strange decision.
The second half saw Ipswich try to repeat the blitz of the first half from the off and the y hit the inside of the post, but after that there main tactic was to simply put in crosses into the box and we struggled to deal with this, although hindsight showed that we did.
Indeed Ipswich's best chances came from our own frailties, Welington producing an air shot when the ball was cleared from a corner, left a man through on goal, but we managed to get back and a poor header saw Gavin Bazunu having to be quick, getting to the ball before getting flattened, the home crowd roaring for a penalty.
But that was about it, the stats show an even game, Ipswich had 2 attempts on target, a smart save with his legs by Bazunu and we managed just 3, Jay Robinson having 2 of them, his header for the goal and a smart run and shot that needed a superb save to keep the scores level.
This was a game that was a better result for Southampton than Ipswich, it leaves us just 2 points off Stoke at the top and with 4 points only out of the top 4 on goal difference, given our uncertainty with who will stay and go, that is fine.
So where did we go wrong, at the back we were shaky and we lacked that leadership, I am not having a go at Jack Stephens here, in fairness he had a decent game and was probably the best out of the 3, but we were unbalanced and Quarshie was not haing a good game, this was were leadership came in, the young defender was not afraid to keep playing passes, but he was trying to hard, it needed someone to calm him down and tell him to keep it simple and then when he had got his passing game going again, try the more difficult stuff.
In front of him Welington was not helping his cause and we looked a little better down the left when Ryan Manning came on just before the hour mark.
Otherwise we looked ok, Flynn Downes & Shea Charles anchored the midfield with Matteus Fernandes & Jay Robinson working hard in front of them, Ryan Fraser was excellent as right wing back, he knew how to get back and defend and his cross for the goal was perfect.
Adam Armstrong was often isolated up front, but he worked his socks off to press the home side defenders.
One pleasing aspect was that the substitutions saw experienced players coming on to the pitch, Some criticised taking off Robinson & Fernandes, but they had run themselves into the ground. it needed fresh legs and the substitutions did not weaken us, indeed we perhaps looked stronger.
So a good point overall, that leaves us in a good position to now take on leaders Stoke City.
However Will Still has some thinking to do about his defence.