In the second half of the season an unlikely hero emerged in Alex McCarthy, who was plunged into the team to save not only Saints from relegation but his own career.
It is true to say that prior to January this year most Saints fans would not have recognised Alex McCarthy if they walked past him in the street, in 18 months at the club he had spent much of that injured and as the December was coming to the end, his only contribution had been two League cup appearances in the Autumn of 2016.
When McCarthy came into the team for the trip to Manchester United it seemed an act of desperation, something new had to be tried after a disastrous Boxing Day hammering at Spurs.
Some would have said that McCarthy was thrown in to see if he was the answer, that if he wasn't then Saints may have looked for salvation in the January transfer and McCarthy may have been consigned to the history books.
After all in his 18 months at the club prior to that trip to Old Trafford he had played only twice, both League cup games in Sep/Oct 2016 and he had spent most of his first season injured, but he had barely played in the 2/12 years prior to his Premier League debut for Saints, 1 Premier League game for Palace since a brief spell of games in August 2015.
In 2014/15 he had been at QPR and played only 3 games in the Premier League, one of those as sub conceding 8 goals along the way, so in 3 1/2 seasons since leaving Reading he had managed 10 Premier League appearances for 2 clubs conceding 17 goals, when he signed he looked good cover for Fraser Forster but little else.
But that was all to change, I have covered the demise of Fraser Forster in an earlier review and the puzzling facts about both keepers is that their stats for their respective halves of the season were both strikingly similar, in fact the only real difference was that Forster made a lot more saves and McCarthy caught a lot more crosses, indeed going into the last four games of the season, there was little to choose between them.
Now some may disagree with this, but in the 14 league games he had played including the defeat to Chelsea, McCarthy had conceded 23 goals, at 1.64 per game that was higher than his predecessor's record, indeed in the 4 games up to and including Chelsea we had conceded 12 goals, we as a team looked shot to pieces and McCarthy escaped some of the blame because he wasn't Fraser Forster, harsh but true.
Up to the trip to Leicester nothing much had changed in terms of Saints conceding goals, McCarthy made some good saves at times and had some good games, but then again so did Forster, he seemed competent, he was wasn't doing much wrong, but we were still leaking goals and I found myself looking at some of them and coming to the conclusion that if Forster had let some of them in he would be getting slaughtered.
But then game those last four games of the season and suddenly everything changed.
McCarthy came to the fore in those last four games and he won the player of the year because of them, the 0-0 draw at Leicester was fairly unremarkable apart from a rare clean sheet, but against Bournemouth there was that last minute wonder save, then up at Everton there was another last minute wonder save that seemed to have won us all three points till that cruel deflection.
Perhaps McCarthy's best game though was at Swansea, ironically he didn't have many saves to make, only 3, but it was his all round goalkeeping that won that game for Saints, he came and claimed crosses, when he couldn't catch them he punched, he looked a calm figure just at the right time that Saints needed it.
It was a shame that we conceded that last minute goal against City as McCarthy deserved a clean sheet for his work in the previous three games.
Usually it is strikers that win player of the year awards for scoring goals at vital times that perhaps give an extra shine to their overall season, this was the case for McCarthy, it was those last four games that won him the awards he gained not just from the fans but his own team mates.
In truth few players had any real case for being player of the year, no one really had any consistency or stood out game after game, most had some good games and far too many average or worse, it was always going to be the case that at the end of the season a hero would emerge not just to save Saints in the run in, but also to win the player of the year award, McCarthy was that man and for the final four games he deserves the accolades.
But what next for McCarthy and indeed the Saints goalkeeping situation. McCarthy has only a year left on his contract which probably tells you what his future would have been had he not got into the team, he was not seen as a rival to Forster only back up, rumours of interest elsewhere abound, but i'm not sure they have any real substance, at 28 he does not have the track record that the big six would be looking at, only 41 Premier League games to his name with 66 goals conceded, almost half of both totals in the last four months or so.
Taking away the emotion of being a Saints fan in the last month or so the big question is can McCarthy do it week in week out or was the last month or so a fluke
You would think that now the club will offer him a new deal and whether he signs that or not will give an indication of what will happen at St Mary's, I would doubt that either keeper will be happy to play second fiddle and one will leave, whether that is Forster or McCarthy is the question.
I have tried to give an honest opinion on McCarthy, I know that some would want a more gushing tribute to our player of the year, but I have tried to tell it as I saw it, four weeks ago the season was heading to disaster, McCarthy saved it that cannot be denied, but we need to see more of him to give a true verdict, after all Manolo Gabbiadini got goal of the season for his close range shot against Swansea, that was the most vital goal not necessarily anywhere near the best and that tells you the story of our season.