Ipswich produce a ‘huge haymaker knockout’ with injury-time winner to leapfrog Leicester to go top

Ipswich reclaimed top spot in the Championship with a knockout of a late goal.

The Tractorboys were facing Southampton on Easter Monday in an automatic promotion six-pointer in a contest that did not disappoint.

With Leicester winning 3-1 against Norwich earlier in the day, Kieran McKenna’s side knew that the pressure was on against the Saints and came from 2-1 down to draw the game level at 2-2.

A red card for James Bree of Southampton saw the side turn firmly in Ipswich’s favour as the match rolled into injury time, with the East Anglian side knowing that three would be needed to go top.

As the minutes ticked by it looked like it would end in a draw until on-loan Brighton star Jeremy Sarmiento slotted home in the seventh minute of injury time to send Portman Road into orbit.

Fans couldn’t believe what they’d seen in the dying stages of the clash, with talkSPORT commentators Joe Shennan and Dean Ashton reveling in the moment.

Ashton said: “You think they’re down and out, they’re up against the ropes and the referee’s going to call it then out of nowhere Ipswich produce a big haymaking knockout in this Championship run-in.

Once again, how many times in this season are we going to say it? Leif Davis with the awareness and calmness and quality to find a teammate in the area.

“He picked out Sarmiento who fell over to start with, by the way, then he just gets up and somehow prods it goalwards past Gavin Bazunu and this place has erupted!

“The Southampton players can’t believe it.”

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Discussing the automatic promotion race, Ashton said: “It’s going to go right to wire, isn’t it?

“All three have shown that they’re capable of taking it to the last day but tonight we’ve seen the difference between a team who will be right there for the automatics and a team who will just miss out.

“There was just a different mentality between Ipswich and Southampton and you could sense that when that pressure was beginning to build that Southampton were unable to cope.”