After the win at Crystal Palace Saints can go into the International break knowing that although the start to the season has not been great, it has been solid and we can build on that.
Over the years as a Saints supporter I have learn't to accept that for some strange reason we rarely make good starts to a season, you can count on one hand how many opening day games we have won since Kevin Keegan left the club the run stretches back that far.
So Mark Hughes task this season was far from easy, he not only had to look to strengthen the squad in key areas but dispel a malaise around the club that has been festering for a while now.
He had to also restore confidence to the squad not only collectively in being able to close out and win games, but individually where certain players had had the confidence knocked out of them.
So although four points from the opening four games is not exactly spectacular, given the opposition we have faced and the issues of the past few years, it is satisfying and suggests that we can now get better and stronger as we move forward.
Ironically it is not as good as the start that Mauricio Pellegrini made last season, he gained a win and two draws out of his first four games.
His predecessor Claude Puel did not make a good start though, his first four games saw a paltry return of only two points, both home draws, although the two away defeats were at Manchester United and Arsenal respectively.
In 2015/16 when we finished 6th Ronald Koeman only gained five points and a year earlier had bettered that with seven.
Mauricio Pochettino's only full season saw him also get five points and our first season back in the Premier League in 2012/13 saw us fail to gain a single point in the opening four games.
So given the circumstances the win at Crystal palace was vital in the it gave us a solid start, similar to most season's and a real foundation to build on and move forward.
But we have to give Mark Hughes the times his two predecessors were never given, Hughes has an advantage over them in that as he helped us escape relegation he has some goodwill as he starts the job and he has to be given the time to show that he is the man to be taken us forward.
The main job is rebuilding confidence in players, Nathan Redmond was a shell of the player he should have been last season, he was destroyed by the crowd, the groans every time he tried to take someone on and didn't beat them, there was never the encouragement that was given to certain players who weren't the whipping boys.
So far this season Redmond has been one of the better players in the team he seems a new man, he runs at players and takes them on and he creates chances, he has lost the fear that he played with last season, there are several others in the same boat as Redmond.
One of those could be Wesley Hoedt, he is lambasted before each game with some demanding that Yoshida play instead, no leeway is given for the fact Hoedt was thrown into a makeshift defence last season in front of a goalkeeper who lost all confidence, the finger was pointed squarely at him by some, who valued commitment above actual ability.
This season his partnership with Vestergaard looks promising, like the team itself it is still a long way from being the finished article, but in the three Premier League games so far it has kept two clean sheets.
So Hoedt needs to be given a break, judgement needs to be reserved for when the partnership has played ten games together at least, only then can we start to decide whether last season was about him being a poor player, or just being in the middle of a poor defence.
The new whipping bot seems to be Charlie Austin after looking on social media "get out of my club" was one tweet and there were plenty more in that vein.
Austin wasn't great on Saturday, but that is fate for you, Mark Hughes made an enforced change and brought on Austin for the injured Long, within minutes we had a penalty, if Austin had scored the pattern of the game would have swung firmly in our favour, we could have won by 3 or 4, but he didn't and he was forced to chase around a lot, something not suited to him, he put in the effort, but suddenly it wasn't his sort of game.
Those who demand Austin never play again often are amazed why Manolo Gabbiadini isn't in the starting line up, there is a good reason for that he hasn't looked at the races, there will be few people present at Brighton on Tuesday surprised that the Italian striker was not on the bench. He had a chance to make the manager pick him with a scintillating display, he did not take it.
Shane Long another whipping boy deserved his starting place on Saturday and he justified it in the hour he was on the pitch, his role is not about goals, it is about work rate, holding the ball up and creating openings for others, when he went off injured it was no surprise that suddenly Palace were able to build from the back.
So we have made a solid start, something we can build on and with a little more luck it could well have been more, 12th after the weekend's games were completed is satisfactory given all that has gone on, but we now need to build on it.
We have a squad capable of a top ten finish, that probably says more about the state of the Premier League these days than our squad, but there is no reason why we can't have a decent season and build on the start.
The transfer window is no shut till January so there is no point in moaning about who we did or didn't buy during the summer, what we need to do now is get behind those at the club, trust the manager to get the team selections right and create the right atmosphere for the team to succeed.