As days at the office go they don't get much worse than this as Saints conceded two soft goals in as many minutes to throw the game away.
Did Saints play badly ? I would say that they didn't, however they cannot gift goals as they did against Palace and expect to get anything out of a game.
With 36 minutes gone Saints looked comfortable, Palace were rarely threatening and you felt that only one team would win the game, yes chances created were not great, but Saints looked to have taken control and ready to squeeze the home side.
Then came one of those moments in football that you cannot legislate for, 999 times out of a thousand Fraser Forster would have smashed an innocuous back pass up to the half way line, but it bobbled from hitting his standing foot and he missed it leaving Benteke with a tap in.
If that wasn't bad enough it disrupted Saints concentration and within 2 minutes they had conceded another and you felt that there would be no way back.
The rest of the game was mainly Saints attacking but they rarely looked like troubling the keeper and the one moment they did saw Jose Fonte smash a straight forward shot miles wide and you knew the game was up.
There has been a lot of hand wringing on social media and moaning but I think we have to take this defeat on the chin and remember that this time last year we went through just as bad a period yet still kicked on.
This year we have already achieved more than last and there is no reason why we can't achieve more.
There are those that say we lack a goalscorer, but it is not really that it is more about creating chances and we failed to do that yesterday, again memories are short, a year ago Mane went five months without a Premier League goal and Pelle disdn't score much mid season.
The truth is that Thursday night is more important than the trip to Palace, if we beat Be'er Sheva and qualify for the Europa League last 32 hen this week has been a success and we can build on that to make it a great second half of the season and with the opportunity to perhaps buy a player in January.
Saturday at Selhurst Park was frustrating , we were not three goals worse than Palace, but it was one of those days im afraid and we have to put it behind us and move on, we have a lot to cheer about at present and we should not let a bad day or two at the office overshadow what we are doing this season.
Sometimes you have a step back to move forward, we have been lucky these last few years in that for the last 7 years we have always improved our league position, that was always going to be difficult to continue, but that does not mean the World is going to end.