Ipswich skipper Sam Morsy’s injury-time equaliser denied Southampton’s latest academy gem Tyler Dibling top billing here.
Dibling, in only his second Premier League start, opened the scoring after five minutes with a smart finish after being teed up by Adam Lallana’s defence-splitting pass.
Aaron Ramsdale made two top-class saves to keep out efforts from Omari Hutchinson in the first half and then George Hirst’s close-range header in stoppage time.
But from the resulting corner Ramsdale was beaten as Ross Stewart’s headed clearance found Morsy 25 yards out and, after taking a touch, the midfielder rifled a shot into the top-left corner via a big deflection off Joe Aribo.
Trademark late show from Tractor Boys
Ipswich made a habit of scoring late goals last season on their way back to the top flight, but Southampton should have put the game to bed long before Morsy’s strike.
Ben Brereton-Diaz blasted a glorious second-half chance over the bar from close range after Cameron Archer had hit the base of the post midway through the first half.
Dibling, an old-fashioned willowy winger who plays with his socks down, showed great composure after Lallana, who made his Saints debut when Dibling was six months old in 2006, put the England Under-19 international clear inside the box to side-foot past Arijanet Muric.
Lallana, who returned to the club this summer after spells with Liverpool and Brighton, was a surprise starter as Russell Martin made four changes to the side that lost to Manchester United last week.
Southampton had lost their opening four games of the season in their worst start to a top-flight campaign since the 1998/99 season, and Martin said he was furious his side failed to see out the game.
“I am frustrated and angry,” he said. “We scored a great goal but we defended too many set-plays and didn’t clean the game up enough.
“I liked a lot of the performance, but we should have put the game to bed and Ipswich had two chances to score in the second half and that was in the 96th minute and they scored from one of them.”
The likes of Alan Shearer, Gareth Bale, Matt Le Tissier, Lallana and Theo Walcott have enjoyed stellar careers after coming through at Southampton and Dibling showed his class with one pass with the outside of his right foot to put Mateus Fernandes in the clear.
Martin said: “He was brilliant again, he needs to get to a place where he can play 90 minutes as he was cramping up, but he is 18 and can do things other players can’t do. I would pay a lot of money to watch him play football.”
Ipswich boss Kieran McKenna said: “On the balance of play we deserved it and it is a good point away from home. They had great energy from the crowd so we kept pushing and bouncing back as we did was fantastic.”
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