For the last two months Southampton manager Russell Martin has doggedly pursued a selection policy that tore apart the foundations of a team that had gone 22 League games unbeaten, but against Preston he suddenly had an unexpected change of strategy.
In recent weeks both Jan Bednarek, Shea Charles & Ryan Manning had found themselves out of favour with Russell Martin, in fact only a week of so ago against Blackburn Shea Charles found he couldn't even make the bench and again he was missing against Watford on Saturday and against Coventry Ryan Manning too found himself watching from the stands after a month of being an unused sub.
Most Southampton supporters had grown accustomed to the fact that however much he shuffled his squad, one player was now seemingly a permanent fixture in the starting XI, he even had a position created especially for him by the manager, the Left back/central midfield hybrid role.
This was a revolutionary role, perhaps the most dramatic tactical role to be created since the "Rush Goalie" rule was invented on a park somewhere by some schoolboys in about 1910.
Spies from Staplewood had reported that Russell Martin also had a prototype Left back/Centre forward hybrid at the planning stage .
So the team news at 7pm had a big shock, first Captain Jack was on the bench, secondly Ryan Manning was back in the team thirdly so was Jan Bednarek and thirdly Shea Charles was back in the squad.
This all came as a bit of a shock to some Saints supporters and undoubtably some were in such a state they could not bring themselves to even attend the game, surely this would be the night our promotion hopes at least automatically ended.
But there was to be a further shock, Gavin Bazunu was mysteriously missing from the line up when the teams took to the pitch, he had definitely been in the team list put up on various social media platforms and indeed Sky Sports pre match, but where was he now.
But if this was a shock then came a bigger one, the man now in goal wasn't deputy Joe Lumley who has been an ever present on the bench since back in November, but Alex McCarthy who has been out of the picture almost completely since his one previous appearance this season over 8 months ago in the EFL Cup against Gillingham on 8th August.
It had been assumed that McCarthy had made his last appearance for the club.
This must have been a big kick in the teeth for Lumley who would have expected as the named goalkeeping substitute to be now in the starting line up.
But all joking aside. Russell Martin had a very big change of direction on Tuesday evening, before this game he was ploughing a path that seemed baffling to many Saints supporters, in the case of Bednarek & Manning they must have both wondered what the manager was up to and the way they had been axed, Alex McCarthy too, he was third choice now and seeing out his contract, even Shea Charles whose only appearance in the past 2 months had been 6 minutes against Coventry sandwiched between two games he didn't even make the bench, yet here he was being brought on at half time ahead of several other regular contenders for the midfield including Joe Rothwell & Will Smallbone.
So Russell Martin's actions are strange to say the least, are they the action of a man who has finally seen the light at why Saints form over the past two months has been so patchy or are they the actions of a man who has lost the plot completely.
Certainly this turn round has been so quick that it is hard to give a definitive answer and to be honest the game against Preston on the pitch gave no clues other than all the players mentioned came back in and did a sterling job.
Our back four again looked solid and commanding and gone was the pedestrian possession football where we would not go forward but always sideways and back whatever the situation.
In fairness that could be because Preston were poor, partly because we made them look so, but once the 3rd went in they were a spent force content to make sure it was not a complete rout.
Maybe it was because we knew that Alex McCarthy wasn't a great player with his feet and that meant a change of tactics to accommodate that, it could be said that Lumley is good with his feet so we could have played him and played the same way.
So was our big tactical turnaround where we didn't muck about with the ball at the back and were more forward looking, all about Russell Martin suddenly realising what the issue was or just down to Preston being poor, possibly a combination of both to some degree.
So the big question now is what Russell Martin does on Saturday, will he keep McCarthy or will he play Lumley given that it now looks like Gavin Bazunu will be out for the season, will he stick with both Bednarek & Manning in the back four or will our Captain return ?
Will Shea Charles after showing against both Coventry & Preston that he is a player who can do a job and a good one at that in the centre of the park keep his place on the bench at least.
All this and more will be answered at 2pm on Saturday in Cardiff.