Saints carried on against Norwich City as they had left off against Everton, they were clinical and made sure the opposition never got a look in as it was once again Fortress St Mary's and a jump up to 9th place in the Premier League.
The stats say that Norwich had one effort on target, a tame header in the 72nd minute, I must admit I can't remember it and I suspect Fraser Forster won't either as once again an emphatic team performance condemned the Canaries to defeat.
It could have and should have been more, Angus Gunn on his return to St Mary's must have thought that his ex team mates had something against him as they seemed to hit a plethora of smashed volleys straight at him which he gratefully palmed away from goal.
This was yet again a team performance, everyone did their job, although certain players excelled.
We have now found rhythm and purpose, every man knows his job in any given situation, although this was yet again another unchanged line up, there is great competition for places that means those in possession of the shirt are playing out of their skins to make sure they stay in the side.
Armando Broja usually takes all the plaudits up front, but it is Che Adams who is now the teams leading scorer this season after he cleverly flicked in the ball from close range after initially missing his kick.
In defence Saints were tight, going forward they pressed the opposition and swarmed all over them , peppering the visitors goal with a number of chances.
A few months ago you would have worried going into the last 10 minutes with only a single goal lead, not now though and Ralph Hasenhuttl stemmed Norwich's final surge to try and rescue an unlikely point when he brought on Jack Stephen's and went with a back three.
Earlier in the season that wasn't an option, but now he not only has the squad, but he has fine tuned it and can make switches like this as the pattern of the game suits.
Everyman on the pitch was an 8 out of 10, but there were several who perhaps merited 9, Oriol Romeu was immense and drove the team on, he earned the man of the match accolade from Jamie Carragher on Sky, shading it from Stuart Armstrong courtesy of his late goal.
Armstrong looks back to his best after returning from injury and his surging runs were a constant threat.
For me Kyle Walker Peters was also a contender, not only was he strong defensively, but going forward he was immense, his runs down the left flank into the box caused Norwich trouble all evening and he highlights the spirit in the squad, even though initially this season he was ousted from his usual right back spot, he showed he can play equally well on the left.
The main thing in the evening though was to get the job done, that is why we have started to hold on to leads, we hold our shape a lot better and are not getting caught on the break as much, this and indeed the Everton game had the potential for us to get caught on the break, but we were disciplined and tight.
The objective was to secure the three points and that is what we did, a few more goals would have been nice, but keeping another clean sheet was more important once we got the lead.
But a word of caution, yes we have been superb in the last two games, but we won't always be playing teams as poor as Norwich or for that matter Everton, however in the games in the run up we did show that we have what it takes, so we can move forward with confidence.
So we are 9th, but we might not be by Saturday tea time, we have to look to the Brighton V Aston Villa game & hope that the Seagulls don't win.
But we have achieved our first aim of the season and this win should mean relegation is no longer a worry, we have also achieved the 2nd aim and that is to get in the top 10, we have nearly achieved the 3rd and that is to haul in the points advantage that Brighton had over us a few weeks ago, we have done it temporarily for the moment but hopefully it may be confirmed this afternoon.
The next aim now is to try and haul in Spurs 4 point advantage &Wolves 5 points.
There are 12 games left to play & 36 points all we can do is try and get as many on the board as possible, sadly Manchester City only need another 3 wins and they can relax as we won't be able to catch them.
The one thing I am pleased about is that Ralph Hasenhuttl has shown he is the man for the job, earlier in the season he had his doubters, but most of them have now been dispelled, regular readers will know I have always had faith in Ralph and that this period of managerial stability has now reaped it's rewards, yes there have been some rocky results, but Ralph has given us purpose and taken us from a club in complete disarray on the pitch when he arrived into a solid squad.
It is a pleasure once again to go to St Mary's and watch Saints, it has crept up on us slowly and surely, but suddenly it is good again, now we look to Wednesday's FA Cup tie with West Ham to try and really make this season interesting.