We nearly threw it away, but we got the elusive goal and kept going till the end to get our just rewards come the final whistle.
This was a game that would have told Mauricio Pellegrino a lot about his squad, it will have told him that they have a good fighting spirit, it will have told him that they have a depth that offers variety and it will have told him that he desperately needs a new central defender and Virgil Van Dijk back.
Saints first goal at St Mary's in over nine hours was well worked, Manolo Gabbiadini started and finished the move and in between made a run that needed a good ball and Nathan Redmond provided it roling an inch perfect pass that Gabbiadini took in his stride and stroked past Hart.
That put Saints in command especially when Arnautovic was red carded for a needless elbow on Stephens, in truth that should have been a second dismissal for the Hammers with Mark Noble getting away with an awful studs up challenge on Lemina that if Lee Mason had seen properly would have seen Noble walking.
Dusan Tadic made it two from the spot after Jose Fonte hauled back Stephen Davis and it looked like Saints would have an easy second half, but they switched off and conceded a sloppy goal right on the stroke of the break, at the time it looked worse than it was, it was a well placed shot from Antonio that Forster did well to stop, however he really should have got the ball away from danger rather than push it out and Hernandez reacted quickest to fire home and give the Hammers hope.
For long periods f the second half Saints were in command, as you would expect with a man advantage, but even before the equaliser came they looked shaky when the ball was played into the box and struggled to mark and win headers.
The visitors should have had a penalty themselves when Stephens appeared to have moved his arm to block the ball.
But on 77 minutes West Ham appeared to have snatched a draw and Saints weakness in the centre of defence was exposed, again another cross into the box saw Stephens marking space and Sakho got goal side of Yoshida and had a free header which Forster did very well to keep out, but again Hernadez was quickest to react t o smash the ball into the net.
It looked like the Hammers now had the initiative and they had a game plan, get the ball into the box and this was causing us problems, however we dug in and kept going and it paid off.
Pellegrino was not prepared to settle for a draw and made a double substitution, although Gabbiadini going off was perhaps not the obvious choice and the fans would have liked to have seen him play alongside Charlie Austin who cam on, the manager showed he was not afraid to take risks and he took off Davis and put Long on to chase and harrass the West Ham defence and defend from the front.
However it looked like being a draw till the final minute of injury time, Yoshida did well to get himself in the box and Zabaleta had clearly not watched last weeks game against Swansea on Match of the Day when he shoved Yoshida in the back before he could head the ball.
The question though was who would take the spot kick, Dusan Tadic's first half penalty was not great but he had shown the bottle to want to take it and did so again, but Charlie Austin is the penalty king these days when he is on the pitch and he took command, ignored the West Ham attempts at gamesmanship and stroked it home to the relief of 90% of the crowd.
But as mentioned the game showed Mauricio Pellegrino the good and the bad of his squad, it is big enough and good enough to mount another top 8 challenge, however it is weak in the centre of defence, it cannot be denied that both Yoshida and Stephens had good games, but the harsh reality is that the guts of Yoshida and the ability of Stehens to carry the ball forward mask the problem that we have in defending and that we keep presenting chances to the opposition by leaving them unmarked.
I have nothing against either and perhaps either one of them alongside a quality central defender would do a decent job, but together they are not good enough as a partnership and do not have that presence that we have had over recent years with the likes of Lovren, Fonte, Alderweireld and Van Dijk, with those the opposition knew they had a tough job, West Ham like Swansea knew where our soft underbelly was and loked to exploit it, sometimes they missed chances gifted to them as Swansea did and sometimes they made us pay as the Hammers did for their second goal.
Truth is that with someone of the quality of Hoedt in the team and perhaps Van Dijk back, we would be a formidable side and it would give uf the foundation to score goals.
But despite 68 possession the visitors still had more chances than us and more of them on target and that is a worrying stat.
But lots of positives from this game, it was perhaps not won in the most convincing manner, but God knows we have not had a lot of luck in the final months of last season and the opening games of this and we deserved a bit swinging in our favour, sign Wesley Hoedt this wek and there is a lot to look forward to this season.