on the back of Saturday\u2019s agonising FA Cup semi-final loss to Manchester City.<\/a><\/p>\nIpswich host QPR on Saturday lunchtime while promotion rivals Millwall, whose goal difference is inferior by 17, play at home to relegated Oxford.<\/p>\n
Middlesbrough also remain in the hunt to finish runners-up to title winners Coventry and will go to play-off chasing Wrexham at the weekend sitting two points off the pace.<\/p>\n
In a tense tussle between two teams relegated from the top flight last term, Ipswich had the better of the limited first-half chances.<\/p>\n
Town winger Jaden Philogene \u2013 one of five players recalled following Saturday\u2019s 0-0 draw at lowly West Brom \u2013 twice tested Saints goalkeeper Daniel Peretz, while Ivan Azon also threatened.<\/p>\n
Southampton boss Tonda Eckert made three changes to his starting XI following a heartbreaking trip to Wembley.<\/p>\n
Recalled striker Larin curled narrowly over for the hosts and later directed a tame header straight at Tractor Boys keeper Christian Walton as the contest initially struggled to justify the pre-match hype.<\/p>\n
Larin tested Walton with an acrobatic effort within a minute of the restart before Ipswich edged ahead in the 48th minute.<\/p>\n
After Jacob Greaves dispossessed Tom Fellows in midfield and lifted the ball over the top, Azon poked across the box for Burns to lash beyond Peretz.<\/p>\n
Ipswich\u2019s sold-out away end was sensing a crucial victory but the advantage lasted only 10 minutes.<\/p>\n
Greaves was booked for a lunging challenge on Finn Azaz just outside the Town box and from the resulting free-kick, Manning\u2019s low effort flicked off Marcelino Nunez to fly into the roof of the net via the leg of the wrong-footed Walton.<\/p>\n
Southampton knew only victory would be good enough to keep them in contention for a top-two finish.<\/p>\n
Azaz \u2013 bidding to replicate his wonder strike at Wembley \u2013 drilled wide before a moment of magic turned the match in the home side\u2019s favour in the 80th minute.<\/p>\n
Manning drove forward and slid a pass into Canada international Larin, who calmly stepped inside Greaves and Leif Davis to stab the ball beyond Walton.<\/p>\n
A four-way final-day promotion shoot-out was on the cards but Clarke hauled Ipswich level three minutes from time by firing his 16th league goal of the season into the bottom right corner.<\/p>\n
The winger twice came close to a late winner, striking a post and then forcing a last-gasp save out of Peretz as a breathless encounter ended all square.<\/p>\n
Watch Atl\u00e9tico Madrid v Arsenal in the Champions League semi-finals on Wednesday from 7.30pm on RT\u00c92 and RT\u00c9 Player. Follow our live blog on RT\u00c9.ie\/sport and RT\u00c9 News app<\/p>\n
Watch Lyon v Arsenal in the UEFA Women’s Champions League semi-finals on Saturday from 1.30pm on RT\u00c92 and RT\u00c9 Player<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ipswich edged closer to an immediate Premier League return by ending Southampton’s automatic promotion hopes with a thrilling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":422479,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-422478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=422478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422478\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}