Saints finished the season with a flourish, to give hope that they can go into the play offs with discipline & organisation as well as the confidence that they can beat anyone that they meet.
The mood at Elland Road was buoyant with Leeds supporters still having a little bit of hope that they could thrash Southampton and that fellow Yorkshire side Huddersfield could perform a miracle at Ipswich.
When the Saints team was announced an hour before kick off, it was clear that the strategy from Russell Martin was to play just about his first choice side and try to regain confidence ahead of the play offs and hope that no one would pick up any injuries, it was also uplifting to see the name of August signing Ross Stewart on the bench.
Sometimes you can tell how the game is going to go for Saints in the opening minutes, you can almost smell either the fear of confidence in the side and with this one you could see there was a different attitude running through the team.
But you could also feel that this was going to be a different type of game that Saints would need to play, this was going to be one of the few games where we would not dominate possession, we would need to be well drilled and organised to repel a pacy Leeds side who knew that they had to win by a big score to have any hope of promotion.
At the back Saints seemed to have 3 central defenders with Kyle Walker Peters and Ryan Manning operating as wing backs, but it was fluid and adapted when Leeds tried to give it the run around.
But Elland Road was stunned into silence when Adam Armstrong fired home from close range on 18 minutes to give Southampton the lead and the 2,000 Saints supporters were jubilant, with nothing to play for they were not on edge and gave their team superb backing.
But the lead would not last long, I have often complained about a lack of leadership on the pitch and this was evident just after we had scored, instead of keeping things tight after the goal, we went off after the restart as if we were a goal down with 2 minutes to play, Leeds got the ball and for just about the only period of the game we were in disarray, we couldn't clear the ball cleanly and Leeds got up a head of steam.
After having at least two good chances to clear the ball it eventually fell to Piroe who fired home.
So now was the acid test for Saints, the crowd were now sensing their team were getting going and could they put the visitors to the sword.
The answer was no, Saints regained their composure and 14 minutes later were back in front, the architect was Kyle Walker Peters who chased what looked a ball going out for a goal kick into the corner flag, won it and then went past the defender to pull the ball back for Will Smallbone who fired home.
This was a pivotal moment, it knocked the stuffing out of the Leeds team and the crowd, they were realising that time was running out and with the news filtering through to the Leeds fans by both the internet and Saints fans letting them know, that Ipswich were a goal up, they were realising that with only 55 minutes left they were going to need to score a lot of goal in the second half even if Huddersfield could perform a miracle at Portman Road.
Russell Martin made a change at half time, off went Manning and on came Ryan Fraser as the left wing back, the Wee Man worked tirelessly down the wing both at the back and going forward.
In truth it was a decent game, Leeds despite knowing their feint automatic promotion spot was over in all but name, did keep going in an attempt to win the game and it needed a couple of smart saves from Alex McCarthy to keep Saints in front, but truth was that we looked comfortable right to the end.
We looked a little back to our old selves, we had fight and we played the system well.
Both sides made multiple substitutions as you would expect, Leeds made a triple change on the hour mark, at the same time as Che Adams limped off and on came Sulemana.
I was a little disappointed that we left our remaining 3 relatively late, but I was pleased that perhaps our man of the match Flynn Downes came off with 22 minutes to go, he has struggled with injury of late, the longer the game went on I thought we were tempting fate, but we gambled and won.
On 83 mins we brough on James Bree for KWP and the one that many Saints fans wanted to see, Ross Stewart on for Adam Armstrong, there was a feeling that we had done the main job of the day and that was to put in a performance that showed that we go into the play offs in fine form and that the result was now very much secondary, it was about taking off vital players to prevent injury and giving the fringe players a game.
In truth in the 12 minutes or so Stewart was in the game, he rarely had a touch in an area that he could shine, but it was good to see him come through unscathed.
In truth the last phrase of the game even after the changes rarely saw any real scares for Saints, it went pretty much the way of the rest of the time, Leeds attempted to run at us with pace and we dealt with it fairly easily.
The final whistle saw Saints supporters a lot happier than Leeds for several reasons.
If we could have had a wish list for this game before kick off, I would say that it would pretty much have been satisfied by the final whistle, firstly show we still have the discipline and spirit, secondly show we can defend, thirdly show we can score, fourthly show we can game manage, fifthly get through without injury and finally last and firmly least, win the game, all boxes ticked.
Despite the doom & gloom of the last week, we go into the play offs with a record that is not bettered by any of the other 3 clubs , we have scored 9 points from the last 6 games. won 3 and drawn 3 , Leeds have lost 4 times and gained only 4 points, West Brom lost 3 times and gained only 7 and finally Norwich the team that everyone has been talking about as the side that makes the late charge for the top 6 and is in form, have won only 2 games and drawn 3 to be level on points with us on 9.
Indeed we have the psychological advantage, we have beaten Leeds both home & away, we have beaten West Brom both home and away and we have drawn both games with Norwich.
We should go into the mix without fear, the 3 games lost in a row caused panic, the heavy defeat at Leicester blurred our vision, we all took our eye off the ball and in fairness so did the manager.
But hopefully Russell Martin has learned a few things form the last few weeks, that when we play our best side we can win games, those that pour scorn at the so called Tippy Tappy Football can take heart that this has had to be adapted, we still play a possession based game, but with Alex McCarthy not as good with his feet as Gavin Bazunu we have cut out a lot of the more risky passes at the back, McCarthy will put his foot through the ball when closed down, when Bazunu would try another pass and our defenders also seem to know they can't play it so tight anymore.
A good day at the office for Southampton FC and more importantly it's supporters, now is the time for unity, everyone behind the team and the manager, leave the recrimination for after the final game, whenever that may be.
The Saints supporters up at Leeds were superb, although it was sold out there were a few empty seats as you would have predicted from the posts on social media from those trying to sell their tickets, they missed the point, it is easy to not go to a football game when the side are not doing well, but if we are to prosper in the play offs then the final piece in the jigsaw was the fans, the players needed to see the Southampton supporters loud and proud of their team again.