A good entertaining performance from Saints that should have seen all three points in the bag before a late goal cost us dearly for the second consecutive home game.
A late goal from the visitors once again cost us dearly as or inability to defend balls swung into the box cost us two goals and two points, meaning in the last two home games we have dropped three points from two last minute goals.
With 25 minutes to go it was going so well for Saints, after dominating the first half and going into the break one up from a superb Pierre Emile Hojbjerg goal the second half was a lot tougher and Brighton came out fighting although right up to our second on 65 minutes when Danny Ings was brought down and got up to score from the spot, it had been mainly bluster from the Seagulls that Saints could cope with and with a two goal cushion Saints shoud have won it.
But barely had the celebrations ended and Brighton were back in the game, this was the point were a good leader on the pitch would be urging his team on, but we gave a way a silly foul and let Brighton score from a free header in the six yard box, I am saying nothing about this other than last season people would be demanding Fraser Forster be hung drawn and quartered for half coming and then stopping.
Saints appeared to be weathering the storm after this, but i'm not sure our use of substitutions helped, James Ward Prowse for Elyounoussi made sense, but not Gabbiadini for Long.
Shane Long had run his socks off but he was still going strong, he was closing down the Brighton defence, holding the ball up and drawing fouls which in turn stopped the visitors getting up a full head of steam, but this is not Manolo Gabbiadini's game, suddenly Brighton could press forward from the back and Saints didn't have Long to relieve the pressure.
But Saints appeared to be nearly home when a minute into the four added disaster struck, again it was our failure to deal with crosses, at the end of last season Alex McCarthy was outstanding in coming off his line and dealing with balls into the box, last night he appeared to be lacking a little confidence, he should have dealt with the first goal and for the equaliser if he had done what he did last season then we would have seen the game through.
If he had come and caught a fairly simple cross from a corner into the six yard box it would have relieved pressure, yes he made a fine save from the header, but he really should have dealt with the cross. From the resulting corner Brighton won their penalty.
The goal from the spot wasn't the last action, Ryan Bertrand's free kick in literally the last seconds, drew a superb save from the Brighton keeper.
All in all there were many plus points to take from the game, Saints were attacking, they were entertaining, no one can claim it was the bore draws of the past two seasons, several players were outstanding, Pierre Emile Hojbjerg, Nathan Redmond and Shane Long all seemed to be at the heart of what we did, Hojbjerg semed to have everything, good defensively, strong going forward and a great goal.
Nathan Redmond ran at players with a confidence he has not shown in a long long time and Shane Long did what he does, the unsung heroes role where some look at the fact he hasn't scored rather than the work he does in winning challenges in the final third.
But it was undone by our failure to organise and defend, we allowed ourselves to go to deep, the Hoedt /Vestergaard partnership is in it's infancy but one of them needs to take command in the defence and hold a line, for the first goal we allowed ourselves to be pushed back too far, that in turn let McCarthy to be indecisive and Brighton were back in it.
As mentioned earrlier three points dropped in the final minute in the last two home games, with those points we would now be 9th with what would be a good start to the season, but we are still not completely rehabiliated and have paid a price and learned a few lessons and 13th on 5 is solid if unspectacular.
But we should not let the disappointment of last night cloud the issues, this is an entirely different side from a year ago, it has it's weaknesses but it also has a lot more plus points, there is light at the end of the tunnel and unlike last season it's not an oncoming train.