diff --git a/src/app-layer-expectation.c b/src/app-layer-expectation.c
index d28e40c7dd..579582114a 100644
--- a/src/app-layer-expectation.c
+++ b/src/app-layer-expectation.c
@@ -257,8 +257,10 @@ int AppLayerExpectationCreate(Flow *f, int direction, Port src, Port dst,
         }
     } else {
         exp_list = SCCalloc(1, sizeof(*exp_list));
-        if (exp_list == NULL)
+        if (exp_list == NULL) {
+            IPPairRelease(ipp);
             goto error;
+        }
         exp_list->length = 0;
         CIRCLEQ_INIT(&exp_list->list);
         CIRCLEQ_INSERT_HEAD(&exp_list->list, exp, entries);