Southampton began life without Theo Walcott in depressing fashion as Ipswich grabbed a deserved victory in their Coca-Cola Championship clash at St Mary's.

While the world's most expensive 16-year-old was heading off on a winter holiday following his £12million move to Arsenal, his former team-mates found themselves slipping to a sixth defeat in seven league outings courtesy of Alan Lee's double at the beginning and the end of the game.

Lee grabbed his first goals since leaving Cardiff as George Burley's side slumped against the club he made over 500 appearances for and led into Europe during eight years as manager.

Burley filled the hole left by Walcott's departure by handing injury-hit striker Marian Pahars only his second start in almost two years while a familiar face lined up for the visitors in Jim Magilton, who spent five years with Saints in the 1990s.

Lee, making only his second appearance since his switch from Ninian Park, gave Town an early lift by punishing some flat-footed defending with just three minutes on the clock.

The Irishman latched on to Owen Garvan's clever chip, held off Darren Powell and tucked the ball past the helpless Paul Smith.

Lee was shown a yellow card for clattering Powell as the tackles began to fly in, and Town were dealt a blow in the 22nd minute when midfielder Gavin Williams limped off after coming off second best in a challenge with Djamel Belmadi.

Richard Naylor wasted a fine opportunity to double their advantage when he put a free header over the bar, but the defender made amends at the other end with a superb last-ditch tackle on Pahars as the Latvian was about to shoot.

Dexter Blackstock, a Saints Academy colleague of Walcott, was then crudely halted by Jimmy Juan on his way to goal.

The Frenchman escaped with a booking, while Rory Delap curled the resultant free-kick agonisingly wide.

Saints began the second half in lively fashion and Blackstock just failed to get a touch on the ball when put through following a jinking run from Pahars.

Burley threw on three substitutes in David Prutton, Kenwyne Jones and Tomasz Hajto but Ipswich nearly found the net again when Lee's header from Matthew Richards' cross was superbly kept out by Smith.

Lee's lively performance did eventually produce a second goal, which came with a minute remaining when he latched on to Scott Barron's pass and smashed the ball past Smith.

It all added up to a miserable spectacle for the long-suffering Saints fans as a bad week was capped off with yet another bad result.

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