EFL Championship LIVE: Southampton vs Ipswich Town – team news, build-up, score & live text updates
Can the Saints go marching on?published at 19:12 BST
Southampton v Ipswich (19:45 BST)
Image source, Getty Images
When Southampton turned around a 1-0 deficit against Wrexham at St Mary’s on the opening day of the season with two stoppage-time goals, hopes were high of a new dawn.
The new dawn proved to be a false one. Saints won just one of their next dozen Championship games and, on 1 November, Will Still was sacked, with under-21 coach Tonda Eckert appointed interim boss the following day. They have barely looked back since.
Saints won six of their next seven games, scoring 19 goals in the process, and despite a wobble over the festive period, taking just three points from seven winless games, Eckert’s side hit back with a 20-match unbeaten run in all competitions.
A 17-game unbeaten streak in the Championship has yielded 41 points and lifted Saints from 14th to within striking distance of automatic promotion, but though they twice come from behind in last Tuesday’s 2-2 draw at home to Bristol City, they failed to find a winner which would have made tonight’s game even more interesting.
