Saints scored in the first minute and also in the very last minute, in between we had some good football, but also some appalling play and game management both on the pitch and on the bench, but at the end of the day it is about the result not the game.
No one was surprised that Russell Martin announced an unchanged team from Tuesday's win over Coventry and that looked to be a good choice in the very first minute when a sublime cross from Adam Armstrong found the head of the unmarked Will Smallbone who found the net from close range.
It could not have been a better start and for 20 minutes saints looked back to their old selves and some good work from Kyle Walker Peters and David Brooks let Che Adams with a simple goal.
So now it was only a question of how many, but no Watford got their act together and bounced back aided by our usual penchant for playing the possession football game to the maximum and losing our shape and just after the half hour mark they pulled one back.
Now the bad side of Saints came out, I am coming to the conclusion that Russell Martin has told the players they will be fined if they clear the ball whatever the situation, hence we never manage a game, we seem to re start goal kicks with no rest, pick the ball up pass it short and here we go, if you are going to pass the ball to someone at the back, they have to have an outlet, but frequently that is ignored and players find themselves closed down and pressed into cul de sacs.
We have to have some game management, sometimes you have to slow things down and take the sting out of a game, we never do that, it is always about pass pass pass.
I have no problem with possession football, but like any tactic in football sometimes you have to go off piste and do something different, whether that is clearing the ball or playing a long pass.
In the second half you knew there would be a second goal, it was almost Watford in the opening minutes, but Taylor Harwood-Bellis read the game superbly and cleared it off the line, it could have been Saints, but the linesman's flag went up.
Then came the tinkering, the first substitution on 56 minutes was understandable, David Brooks was struggling to get into the game and on came Ryan Fraser, the second at the same time was puzzling, off came Joe Aribo and on came Stuart Armstrong, but I believe that Aribo had a knock, but to be blunt as we needed to dig in in the midfield, Stuart Armstrong is a more attacking player.
On 70 minutes off went Bree and on came Manning, like for like, but when you are defending a lead I would suggest that Bree is the man for the job and not Manning.
Then on 80 minutes came the truly baffling, take off Che Adams and bring on Sekou Mara, as many will testify I have often stuck up for Mara, but his appearance on Tuesday night was poor, so why was he brought on before Edozie or even Sulemana.
But the change at the same time was just plain baffling, on came Jan Bednarek, that was positive, after all he should have been in the starting line up, but he didn't replace a defender, off came Will Smallbone and Jack Stephens was moved to midfield, put bluntly he is not a midfield player, his only games there have been in the past few weeks under Russell Martin and have not lead to rave reviews, so why with just 10 minutes left is he put into our midfield at a time when we needed strength and mobility, Joe Rothwell would have been the obvious choice, given the omission of Shea Charles from the bench, they did the job on Tuesday night, but no Jack has to play somewhere whatever happens.
It was no surprise when Watford drew level with 5 minutes left.
But another baffling moment, this was the cue for a large chunk of the crowd to storm off in a huff, we were just about to enter a pivotal moment in the season, but many chose not to stay and watch it.
Saints have scored a lot of late goals this season and with 5 minutes of normal time left plus injury time. a winner for Saints or for that matter one for Watford was not a remote chance.
Just when the team needed the fans they were faced by the sight of thousands heading for the exits. But most did stay and were to be glad they did.
In truth the following 12 minutes were not that eventful and with the 7 minutes of injury time now gone you felt that we had blown it, even when we won a corner the smart money was on the ball being cleared and the final whistle being blown, but it was a decent delivery that landed at the far post and was met by Flynn Downes, Watford will claim a handball, but TV replays are inconclusive, no matter the ball was in the net and those in the ground went wild.
Perhaps this is the pivotal moment in the season, certainly it was the one that now meant that we can not be caught by the 7th placed club, it also means that West Brom who are in 5th place can now only equal out current 81 points, so we are almost over the line for 4th place.
But with Leicester losing on Friday night, Leeds in the lunchtime game and Ipswich only drawing, it opens out a chance at automatic promotion .
It is still a long shot, but if we win all our games we would end on 96 points, Ipswich can get 98 points, given that if we win all our games Leicester & Leeds would have lost to us, if they both win their other games then Leicester would get 97 and Leeds 93.
Automatic promotion is not quite in our own hands, but 3rd place is and that has to be our first aim.
This season is coming to an exciting conclusion, whether it matter to Southampton on the final day is yet to be decided, but certainly at Elland Road Leeds will have something to play for.
So why for so many does it not seem like that ?