A feisty start saw Sammie Szmodics booked for a rough challenge on Adam Smith, and with the Portman Road crowd in full voice after a much-needed spark, Jack Taylor came close to an opener with a header just over the bar.
The respite was short-lived for Bournemouth though, and the Tractor Boys took the driving seat barely two minutes later, as Cameron Burgess played in Conor Chaplin on the edge of the box, allowing him to fire in and give Ipswich hope of finally ending their long wait for a home success.
It wasn’t long after Ipswich’s opener that VAR took centre stage with two vital decisions.
Firstly, Cameron Burgess thought he had turned goalscorer when heading in a corner at the far post, but a VAR review found that Liam Delap had unlawfully impeded Kepa Arrizabalaga in the build up, leading to his strike being disallowed.
Bournemouth went straight up the other end, and Justin Kluivert appeared to have been brought down in the box, leading to another tension-packed check.
However, Michael Salisbury stuck to his original decision.
Bournemouth had several openings in the first half’s latter minutes, but they were relatively sedate compared to what had preceded them.
So too were the early passages of play after the interval, though Lewis Cook saw a long-range effort fly just over the bar.
With no equaliser in sight, Andoni Iraola rang the changes after the hour mark, bringing on Enes Ünal and Dango Ouattara to give the Cherries some fresh legs up front and take advantage of their ever-growing momentum.
However, Szmodics nearly wrapped up the points for good with just over 20 minutes of normal time remaining.
He received a precise pass deep inside the box from Delap and found himself one on one with Arrizabalaga, but came off second-best as he fired goalwards, with the Spaniard thwarting him at point-blank range.
Those misses proved costly, as Iraola’s men staged a remarkable comeback to turn the game on its head.
Their pressure was finally rewarded on 87’ when a counter down the left saw Ouattara force Arijanet Muric into a charge out of goal, allowing him to cross into the area where Ünal was waiting to bundle in at the far post.
And as if that wasn’t enough, Ouattara turned goalscorer deep into stoppage time, as some neat interplay unlocked the Ipswich defence and allowed him to fire in from inches out at the near post.
More than two decades of waiting for a top-flight home win will continue for Ipswich, who remain four points adrift of safety.