Saints ended their battle for automatic promotion in a tough fought game with Ipswich, but the season is far from over and now we lick our wounds and look to continue our quest for 4th place and ultimately promotion through the play offs.

At the end of the game it felt like a loss at St Mary's on Tuesday , but it was far from that and our unbeaten run in the Championship now stands at 18 games and counting.

On reflection this was perhaps a game too far, although we have a strong squad, in recent weeks it has been stretched a little and we went into this game without key players such as Flynn Downes, Jack Stephens & Kuryu Matsuki.

But we put in a performance and after the game exploded to life in the 48th minute when Ipswich took the lead, with the crowd suddenly stirring to life we fought back and took the lead before ultimately Ipswich gained the point that they needed to keep automatic promotion squarely in their own hands on the final day.

We might not have that 2nd place to play for as we travel up to Preston on Saturday, but we could still finish 3rd or more likely 4th and that will be a key advantage in the play off semi finals as we would have home advantage in the second leg.

So there is no time for rest for Tonda Eckert & his men, they have a job to do at Preston and then hope that Wrexham get at least a point at home to Middlesbrough.

The game itself against Ipswich though was pulsating and no one can accuse Saints of not playing a full part, they caught napping a little to concede the first goal, but they rallied and with the crowd finding it's voice only took 10 minutes to get back on level terms, a free kick from Ryan Manning squarely on target, but a deflection helped it past the Ipswich keeper.

Now it was game on and it was Manning the hero again, playing a big part in the second goal, his cross being controlled by Cyle Larin who turned two defender and slotted home with the outside of his right foot to give Saints the lead and hope that automatic promotion might be on the cards.

However the lead would last just 7 minutes and with just 3 minutes left on the clock Ipswich equalised, again you felt that the Saints legs were tired, but the visitors ones desperate as they poured forward trying to keep their season on track.

We were second best to the ball twice in seconds and the 3rd Ipswich touch was to slam it home past Peretz.

You felt at this point that Saints might crumble, but we again drew on inner strength to make sure that we did not lose the game, although at this point you could not see us winning it.

The final whistle saw the mood subdued, most were complaining about the referee who seemed to give us nothing and indeed if there had of been VAR, the Ipswich defender who fouled Finn Azaz for the free kick for our equaliser would have well seen red.

The fans felt that the ref seemed to ignore a series of fouls by the visitors, some more serious than others as the Tractor Boys truly practiced the dark arts of shirt pulling etc.

But we stayed focused and Shea Charles & Caspar Jander, especially Jander ran their socks off .

But as I say, we live to fight another day and with so much packed in to the last 3 weeks it is hard to believe that in that time we had packed in 7 games, one of them being an FA Cup semi final and the other 6 in the league.

Just 3 weeks and 2 hours earlier, we were at Wrexham fearing that defeat would be a terminal blow to our play off chances, but here we were already guaranteed of a play off spot something we would have snatched your hand off if we had been told this pre the Wrexham game.

Some serious heroes have emerged, some obvious, others not quite so.

Perhaps the one man I should highlight though is Ryan Manning, at the start of this season, his reputation amongst Southampton supporters was somewhat similar to that amongst the less charitable of our fanbase, but he has quietly just got on with the job.

He has started 35 games, come on in another 7 and in the other 3 he was an unused sub. overall he has scored 8 goals and added another 6 assists in the Championship, but in the last 5 games he has truly excelled.

There were some who suggested that he might be dropped to give Welington some game time as Manning was going to miss the FA Cup semi through suspension.

There were some that thought Welington should keep his place for this game, after a decent performance at Wembley, but Manning's goal and assist against Ipswich, made it 2 goals and 3 assists in the last 5 League games, he truly played a big part in turning us from also rans into genuine Automatic promotion contenders.

But this game is now done, Tonda Eckert and his men now go again at Preston, they will take and be focused on each game as it comes and so should the Saints supporters.

It was easy to go up to Wembley last Saturday and bask in a glorious day, but now it's back to the bread & butter of the League and we have a job to do at Preston and that is secure the three points that if the luck is with us secure us 3rd place and if not at least 4th.

We get that done and we have an advantage for the play offs and we again have to replicate those glorious 3 games of 2024.

This season is far from over we now need to get ourselves over the finish line.

All Photos Via Reuters