I have waited a couple of days to write this report, to give me time to reflect on what I watched on Friday evening with some sort of clarity rather than raw emotion, but there is no easy way to dress things up and the problem and indeed the solution is there for all to see.
It seems that teams have worked out what you need to do to beat Southampton, it is all quite simple really, firstly you go at them in the opening minute of the game, then you sit back and wait for the opportunity to win the ball and counter attack and then you go at them in the final minutes of the first half, the opening minutes of the second and then the final minutes of the game itself, injury time of both halves is crucial in this.
Still at least it couldn't start as badly as it did at Sunderland, but it could, Jamie Vardy scoring after only 21 seconds as a shapeless and undisciplined Saints flayed desperately before the ball was slotted home by Vardy.
In truth we could have and should have equalised with a couple of good chances either saved by the keeper or spurned before McAteer doubled the lead on 18 minutes.
On 25 minutes Sam Edozie got a well taken goal and surely now it was game on, for a while it was and although Saints didn't get a second you felt that in the second half at only 2-1 down they could take the game to Leicester, put pressure on them and and get something out of this.
The problem was that they couldn't even hold this deficit, in the 3rd minute of 3 minutes of injury time they conceded another shoddy goal and now it was an uphill struggle.
Leicester now had a simple task and one they they were disciplined and organised enough to implement, sit back behind the ball and wait for their opportunities.
Saints for their part had their opportunities to reduce this deficit, but 20 minutes into the second half and the game was truly over, we had the ball in the left hand corner flag, a simple pass was mishit and suddenly 3 Leicester players crossed the half way line with the ball with not a Southampton player in sight.
How the hell does this happen, this is schoolboy stuff, you always keep someone back on the half way line, but we don't.
Now I can't believe that Russell Martin has this as part of his game plan, that he insists that all of his 10 outfield players push on and leave no one at the back to cover, this is just a plain lack of organisation on the pitch and there we have the problem in a nutshell !
I am sick to death of saying this but there is no leader, it is easy to blame individuals, the goalkeeper is an easy target, but look at the first goal, it is fired past him and he has two defenders next to him, he has no room to spread himself, what are they doing marking fresh air on their own goal line.
The next two goals were similar tales of woe, the second goal McAteer completely unmarked to slot past Bazunu and the third goal saw defenders sliding in everywhere, but nowhere near the ball.
I have already dissected the fourth goal and it is this goal that perhaps gives us the clue as to why we are shipping goals.
Gavin Bazunu was left completely exposed, three Leicester players way ahead of any other Saints player, how does this happen, on the face of it our back four was strong, we had Walker Peters proven in the Premier League and played for England, Taylor Harwood- Bellis, very experienced in the Championship and a member of Burnley's back four last season, Shea Charles a great talent, but needing as any player does at his age a mentor and Ryan Manning supposedly the best left back in the Championship last year.
So where are we going wrong ? a lack of leadership is the answer and unless we either find this leader or change our style we are going to keep leaking goals at a higher rate than we can score them.
The full backs job is to push on that is what they are instructed to do, so it is harsh to blame either KWP or Manning for doing their job, the issue is our failure to keep two players guarding the back line as we push on, that falls down to the two central defenders and also the two holding midfield players.
When we attack they all push forward, but none of them really look around and see the gaps that are appearing and plug them.
It is in essence the Charge of the Light Brigade, onward and onward, the only focus what is in front of us and not what we are leaving behind us, it is quite frankly football played by six year olds.
As I have mentioned Russell Martin surely isn't instructing them to do this, so why is it happening, sorry to bore you, but a lack of leadership.
If I was the manager I would be scouring the out of contract player lists for a 32 year old central defender from somewhere, otherwise we have to adapt.
As I mentioned in the preview to this match, perhaps have a back three allowing us to push the full backs forward, but also meaning we can keep two of that three back at all times, perhaps sitting Shea Charles in front of the other two, certainly we also need at least one of the central midfield players to sit and hold.
We have to go back to basics and build our side from the back, not just during the game, but our side in general, great sides are built from the back upwards and with a leader in the centre, both in the defence and in the midfield, great Saints sides have also been built that way, Chris Nicholl & Alan Ball when we were promoted in 1978 and for most of the following 4 years, Mark Wright & Jimmy Case and in later years Fonte & Steven Davis.
But can you see two players of this ilk in our squad ? I certainly can't, having experience is one thing, leading by example is another, but being a leader is a completely different thing altogether and we do not have one.
Even an organiser would greatly improve us, but again we have no organiser in defence, someone who holds the back line.
The plain truth of this is that we are not a bad side, I would say that we are one of the top 3 sides in the Championship in terms of quality, if not the top, but all of this is useless without leadership on the pitch.
This is why we are being beaten, the other sides know how to play against us, they know how to exploit our Achilles heel, as I say we have to change something and we have to do it fast.
This was another set back for us in the space of a week, but there are still 40 games to go in this season, we are still only 1 point off the play offs and at this stage 5 points from the automatic promotion spots is not a large gap to make up.
No one said this season would be easy, we did well to start it in such a great fashion, we have hit the buffers, but that does not make it terminal, it is an issue that we have to deal with now and keep ourselves up with the promotion race.
Ipswich Town arrive tomorrow night and we cannot afford a 3rd defeat in a row, we have to stop the rot.