In the preview for this game I suggested that perhaps a player or two might be rested to freshen things up a little and to keep a few players safe from injury, just about the only good thing that can be said about last night is that we seem to have come through it without injuries.
The problem for Saints at the Hawthorns was evident from the start, Ralph Hasenhuttl had put out his strongest team and it seemed that his payers all knew that and played with little enthusiasm for the game and had one eye on making sure they didn't get injured before the big game on Sunday.
In contrast West Brom wanted the game and played with heart, spirit and an energy that just about everyone in the team lacked.
It s easy in hindsight but the root of the problem was that we were too complacent, the changes I mentioned in the preview would at least have put people in the side who were paying to try and get in Ralph's plans for Sunday, most of those who started played like they knew that they would start against Leicester whatever the result at the Hawthorns.
But althouh most of the blame can be laid firmly at the feet of the team collectively for a lack of effort, it does run a little deeper.
At the back Jannik Vestergaard seems a shadow of the player he was before Xmas, he has gone back to the form he showed in his first two seasons at the club, if I am honest he and Bednarek are not a pairing that compliment each other, they both need a leader alongside them.
For the second Burnley goal last week Vestergaard was caught out of position and failing to hold the back line and be the last man, that happened again at West Brom most prominently on the third goal but also on several other occasions.
In any central defensive partnership there has to be contrast, one man is the attacking player and the other the man who holds the line and steps in to cover, in our pairing the covering man is Vestergaard, but he seems unable to be able to read the game, when a ball is played forward he is too often out of position.
It is a radical move but I would almost say that for the semi final we need to do something drastic at the back, Salisu does seem to be able to read the game, he was bought to replace Vestergaard a year ago, is it time for him to do the job he was bought to do ?
Perhaps this is harsh, but the truth is we just keep getting caught on the break and that leads to problems further up the pitch.
Theo Walcott has pace but he loses the ball too often, he can beat a player but then struggles to keep the ball under control and it almost seems that the final man he has to beat is himself , recent news stories have suggested that Saints are concentrating on signing Walcott rather than Minamino and the Japanese player seems to have lost favour with Ralph, but I would say in the few games he has played so far he has contributed more than Walcott has since the New Year.
So I stand by what I said in the preview, we should have started some of those hungry to play at Wembley, Che Adams & Djenepo came on, perhaps the likes of Jankewitz, Salisu and MInamino as well, players that have something to prove and something to play for, although of course Minamino is cup tied for Sunday.
So bad was this performance that our best player on the night was Moussa Djenepo the 87th minute substitute, he made more things happen in those final minutes than Walcott had created in his 76 minutes, he seemed determined to show Ralph he was the man for the starting XI on Sunday.
But for all of this after the dust has settled, this is just another defeat, the doom and gloom merchants need to save their moaning till the end of the season, we now have an FA Cup semi final, these don't happen very often in Saints history , since World War 2 we have had 30 managers, in that time Ralph is only the 5th man to get Saints to an FA Cup semi final, that is a sign that we are going in the right direction and that he is ultimately the man for the job.
Yes things have gone wrong this season, mostly down to the appalling injuries and it has been hard to just go from a bad run to a good one at the click of the fingers.
We are still a work in progress with several key areas needing dealing with not least an the centre of defence.
When I see knee jerk reactions like "Ralph must go" or "we will not get another point all season" then I despair of football, this could still be our greatest season ever, yet people still go on as if we are the worst team ever in the club's history.
Last night wasn't great, I am not making any excuses, but as I always say it is all about what you do next and our nest is on Sunday at Wembley in an FA Cup semi final and there aren't many occasions when I have been able to say that.
Last night did have some fatal flaws, but ultimately we lost because we lacked a fighting spirit, we know it is still there as we say it against Sheffield United and against Burnley in the second half, if we have it back at Wembley then this season might just get good or it might just end up an average one, with the state of football at the moment I would also take that.