Ultimately it was heartbreak for Saints deep in injury time, but this was a performance which gave hope with several new stars starting to emerge and also a new confidence, but there is still a long way to go yet.
Most Southampton supporters were fairly happy with the line up when it was announced at 1.45 pm, the only real surprise being the omission of Kyle Walker Peters, but aside from that it was a freshening up of what had been a tired and shell shocked starting XI in the previous games.
The game had an explosive start when a superb short pass from Adam Lallana split the defence and Tyler Dibling opened his account for the first team.
But from then on it would be a tough end to end game, Southampton only just shading possession at 53% and with chances at a premium as both sides dug in.
The stats for the game were pretty even, aside from goalkeeper saves, with Aaron Ramsdale having to make 5 out of 6 on target and the visitors keeper only 2 from 3.
In fact the only stat that really varied was corners, the Tractor boys had 10 compared to our 2.
This probably showed that this was no easy game for Saints, it was one that they had to get a result from sheer guts rather than controlling the game through possession football and it probably tells you a couple of things, firstly we are better when we are not having to overplay and are more direct and secondly we do have the squad to fight our way out of this position we are in at present.
Several players here showed their class, Tyler Dibling was the obvious one and in him we have someone who is capable of getting into double figures this season, Adam Lallana rolled back the years and ran the show in midfield for an hour before departing, Mateus Fernandes showed why he may become the bargain of the season, not only was he dynamic, but he showed he can battle for the ball as well as use it.
Flynn Downes looked a natural captain, Aaron Ramsdale once again showed why he will save us points and not cost us and the back four showed grit and determination with Charlie Taylor adding experience and organisation that has long been missing.
But everyone played a part, of the 16 players who took part, you could say one or two didn't have good games, but you couldn't say they lacked effort and fight and they made sure that average games didn't become poor ones.
Sadly though it would not end well, but perhaps for the first time this season we conceded a goals that we really could have done little about, yes perhaps we were a little too deep, but Morsy's effort was probably unstoppable even before it took the deflection.
So there were a lot of good things to take from this game, last season Ipswich beat us twice, so we have improved, we were only a couple of minutes away from swapping places with Ipswich in the Premier League table, if we could have hung on then we would have been out of the bottom 3.
Of course that is not the case, but it does show that the battle at the bottom of the table is far from a foregone conclusion we are only a win away from getting out of the relegation spots and we are coming up on the rails.
As I mentioned in the preview, Russell Martin is a lucky manager, key moments in his reign have shaped the season and forced him to make changes he might not have otherwise made, this was one of them, let us hope that as he did at times last season he shows a tendency to play players that are not in on merit, on Saturday he found not only a starting XI that can pull us clear of trouble, but also strength on the bench that could serve us well.
In the previous four games we lacked a Captain who could lead, someone who leads from the front and is respected, on Saturday we had half a dozen Captains out there, Flynn Downes of course, but Adam Lallana was just as influential, so was Aaron Ramsdale, likewise Taylor Harwood Bellis, Jan Bednarek & Charlie Taylor at the back, even Adam Armstrong who came on and rallied the team by example in the final stages when they must have been out on their feet.
Ultimately this seemed like a defeat as we conceded so late in the game, but these things happen, there were a lot more plus's in this game than negatives, of course the sceptics will have their say on social media, but to get out of trouble we have to surround ourselves with positives and not negatives.