What a great day at St Mary's as Saints capped a great season by not only winning but see one of the results we needed to go for us occur meaning we are guaranteed sixth place and Europa League football.
Saints eventually stormed to victory against a depleted Palace side and then heard that West Ham had lost at Stoke City meaning that we have leap't to fifth place, although this might be a temporary position with Manchester United only needing a point when their match is replayed against Bournemouth.
But we did what we needed to do and beat Palace and then the news filtered through that Stoke were leading West Ham 2-1, but the game was still going, eventually confirmation came through and Saints fans could finally start to celebrate what has been our best ever season in the Premier League and the guaranteed sixth means that it is Europa League for the second season in a row.
Saints started if not badly, then a little stuttering, we just couldn't seem to get our game going and seemed nervous, although I wouldn't quite say it was against the run of play, the goal a minute or so before the break was quite fortuitous in that Sperroni came and flapped at a ball and was impeded by his own defender, the ball fell to Sadio Mane who lobbed it over the keeper and a defender on the line to open the scoring.
But if Saints fans thought that would be it, even in the short time before half time Palace had a good chance that needed a smart save from Fraser Forster to keep the scores level when the whistle went shortly after.
It was another nervous start in the second half and it looked like the nerves were finally settled when Pelle headed home to spark a celebration where he ran over to the bench and sought out Kelvin Davis.
But again if Saints fans thought the season was about to end quietly they were wrong, 3 minutes later ex Saint Jason Puncheon scored a screamer and it looked like it would be a nervy end here at St Mary's whilst ears and eyes in the home section were also looking towards the Britannia Stadium
But the nervy period did not last long and with 15 minutes to go Mane burst through and was clearly pushed with the only doubt being was it in or out of the area, the ref spoke to his linesman on the radio and pointed to the spot.
There was then a bizarre situation as to who would take the penalty, James Ward Prowse would normally take them if on the pitch, but Mane seemed keen to take the ball as did Pelle who looked like he wanted to sign off his Saints career with a flourish.
But it was none of them, Ryan Bertrand was the man to take the kick, he seemed to take a run up of only about two steps but slammed the ball home to restore a two goal lead.
With only a short time to go Saints were not going to let it go now with the finishing line in sight and almost as soon as Steven Davis had scored the final goal of the season to end the scoring at 4-1 the news filtered through the stands that Stoke had scored to make it 2-1.
The final whistle ended with Saints fans celebrating wildly, but then came the wait for the Stoke result to be confirmed, there were over 7 minutes of injury time up in the Potteries , West Ham needed to score twice to break Saints hearts but you had the feeling they wouldn't and finally the tannoy announced what thousands were seeing on their phones, that Stoke had won and Saints were in the Europa League.
Of course due to the situation at Old Trafford we now have to wait to find out what our final finish will be, will it be the fifth place we sit in currently or will United get the point needed to leapfrog us.
Either way it has been a great second half of the season for Saints, Leicester City gained 42 points in the 19 games played since the turn of the year to deservedly win the league, yet we only finished with 3 points less than them in the second half of the season, our 39 points gained making us second only to the Foxes in terms of form in the second half of the season.
That is a great finish for Saints and testament to the way we have been slowly but surely rebuilding the squad since the arrival of Ronald Koeman, there will be some changes in the summer, that is natural in today's modern game, however our League finish and Europa League campaign will mean we are in a much better position to sign quality players than we would have been without European football.
This season has been all about Leicester and rightly so, recent weeks have seen West Ham get publicity not in line with their actual standing, the story on Sunday was meant to be all about West Ham qualifying for Europe next season and bringing Europa League football to the Olympic Stadium, the press were waiting to salivate over the free flowing West Ham way, but at the end of the day it was Saints who came up on the rails to pip them to the last automatic spot and now thank God we can now all support Palace in the cup final.
If Saints fans thought the day couldn't get any better though, a few hours later many were still in the pub celebrating Saints Europa League qualification when the TV showed Plymouth popping in an injury time winner against Portsmouth to condemn the Blue Few to another season in the bottom tier of English football.