Saints returned to St Mary's after their fire enforced postponement in midweek, but it seems that Russell Martin learned no lessons from the win over Birmingham City the previous weekend.
Russell Martin named an unchanged team from the win over Birmingham 7 days earlier, the reaction from Saints supporters was mixed, few disagreed with the selection, but most were worried about the prospect of Jack Stephens again playing in the centre of defence and Taylor Harwood Bellis being shunted to right back again, the hope was that the manager had learned his lesson and that Jack Stephens would be on the right.
No one was slagging off Jack Stephens here, the criticism from the fans was all about why the partnership in the defence of Jan Bednarek and Taylor Harwood Bellis, the foundation of a 22 match unbeaten run in the Championship had been broken up, seemingly just to shoehorn in Jack Stephens in the centre of defence.
In those 22 games our defence conceded just 16 goals, in the last two games we have let in 5, the proof of the pudding is in the eating.
Of course the defensive issues of late are not just down to playing Jack Stephens, he didn't feature against Bristol City when we let in 3 goals, it is not Jack himself that is the issue, it is the disruption to what was one of the best central defensive partnerships in the division.
Ahead of the game though there was some good news as pubs full of Saints fans around the City erupted first as Cardiff scored what had looked an unlikely equaliser in the 4th minute of injury time and then 4 minutes later in the time added on for their celebrations scored again.
That meant the mood was upbeat as the fans headed for the stadium, there was ground that could be made up by beating Sunderland, rather than just holding on to shirt tails.
The game started well for Saints, Sunderland were poor, they had little motivation and it was no surprise when Stuart Armstrong opened the scoring on 9 minutes, there was a little wait for the second goal, Ryan manning being cleaned out and Adam Armstrong scoring the resulting penalty.
So at half time all was well, all the talk was of how many Saints would score, but there were warning signs, we were still taking risks with possession football along the back four, no one is complaining that it has not worked for us this season, but the problem is that we don't seem to know that sometimes you have to put your foot through the ball, it is almost as if the manager has told his player they will be fined if they clear it rather than keep passing, but it is putting our own players under needless pressure.
Initially the first half started much in the same way as the first had ended, there was no sign of what was about to happen next, a couple of changes on 58 minutes with Aribo on for Smallbone & Sulemana for Brooks, seemed a little premature, but made sense, however they seemed to give Sunderland hope.
I have said previously that our opponents know Saints are at their most vulnerable at the start of each half, but perhaps Sunderland had also spotted that we make multiple changes and that also sees us need time to adjust.
Withing minutes Sunderland had taken advantage of the change in the centre of midfield and scored what was a fortuitous goal taking a big deflection and leaving Bazunu no chance.
This sparked 15 minutes of madness when we became a disorganised rabble, there was no leadership or organisation and we were a mess, It was no surprise when the visitors equalised, a spectacular strike that again gave the keeper no chance.
Suddenly we were in trouble, but the issue was that we didn't change the way we were playing, we had let Sunderland back into the game because we were playing our own men into trouble by overpassing the ball, we were failing to clear our lines when quite frankly there was no other option to do anything else but clear it long.
In fairness Russell Martin had finally learned his lesson, off went Jack Stephens and on came James Bree two minutes after the equaliser, we shifted THB back into the middle, on came Joe Rothwell for Stuart Armstrong, suddenly we had our shape back.
Within minutes we had taken the lead again and it was Rothwell who converted Adam Armstrong's cross after it had been deflected into his path and he again finished with aplomb after an effort had been cleared off the line.
We had got out of jail and we had done so despite our tactics not because of them.
So 10 minutes to go, surely we would now concentrate on keeping it tight and not doing anything silly, sadly not we still kept putting our own players under pressure, bizarrely we seemed determined to his long hard balls from the keeper to the centre circle, too often it gave Sunderland a 50/50 chance of winning the ball and even if our man won it he was heading back towards his own goal with little options.
With a two goal lead restored it appeared we were going to keep on doing what had given Sunderland a way back into the game, what should have been a final 10 minutes plus 7 of injury time seen out comfortably was time and time again handed back to Sunderland, luckily enough they didn't seem to have another comeback in them.
The problem is there for all to see, we lack leadership on the pitch, Russell martin thinks that leader is Jack Stephens, but there is no real evidence for that, either this season or any seasons before, Jack Stephens has been a loyal servant to Southampton FC, but he is what he is, a good man to have in the squad, but he is no leader and indeed yesterday when we were in disarray he was taken off.
We need a captain who is a defender of central midfielder, someone who is a first choice in the side, if you are taking off your Captain just at the time the team needs leadership, that should be telling the manager something, perhaps Jan Bednarek or Flynn Downes.
Jack has been a big part of this verdict, but it is not about a criticism of his game, he was no better or no worse than those around him, the issue is not of his making, he is having a burden thrust on his shoulders that he really shouldn't have, I would have been perfectly happy to have had him in at right back yesterday, but the whole ground knew that he should not be in the centre unless Jan Bednarek 0r Taylor Harwood-Bellis are unavailable and he probably knows that himself, indeed the whole squad know that, but he is a professional so has to follow instruction.
When we left St Andrews a week earlier there was a feeling of buoyancy in the travelling Saints fans, but leaving St Mary's it was almost as if we had lost, we should have been even more buoyant than the game at Birmingham, after all we had not only clawed back 3 points on Ipswich, but also the news that Leicester had dropped two points at Hull.
It was game on again for Saints in the automatic promotion stakes , but it didn't feel like it.
Going forward we are one of the most potent attacking line ups, we don't rely just on one man, we have goals in the entire team, as was shown again yesterday, but we have to hone that possession football game a little and accept that at times we have to clear the ball instead of putting our own players in trouble.
We now have a 3 week break, hopefully that will enable us to get Kyle Walker Peters and Ryan Fraser fit and then go into the final 10 games of the season focused on what we need to do.