It might seem irrelevant whether Saints finish 11th or 12th, but that is still around £2.5 million in prize money at stake and it is also a shining light at the end of a season that not so long ago most football fans let alone Saints supporters thought would end in relegation, but actually ends in What If !
I said a few months ago before football was suspended that ultimately this would be a season that would prove the doubters wrong, but would also be frustrating in that we will look back on it knowing that a plethora of lapses of concentration and errors would mean we would be saying "If only" come the end of it.
This has been proved right, we go into the final day guaranteed 12th place after Newcastle's draw with Brighton last night, and we go into the final day level with Everton who sit in 11th on goal difference.
The situation is that we have to beat Everton's score by a single goal, ie if they win 1-0 we have to win 2-0, that scenario would leave us level on points but above them on goal difference, unless they have scored 6 goals in the process in which case they would be above us on goals scored.
A bit of a conundrum as most Saints fans would be happy to hear that Everton had buried Bournemouth by half time and condemned them to relegation, but that would almost certainly condemn us to 11th place with Sheffield United being one of the tightest defences in the Premier League.
But we could have so easily have been playing for 8th the position our opponents on Sunday Sheffield United currently sit in on 54 points, IF we had held on at Arsenal back in November when we conceded a 96th minute equaliser then we would now be level with them on 51 points, just that one game would have made a big difference and seen us challenge for 10th place with the Gunners.
If we had not gifted Burnley all three points back in February and drawn then we would be starting the final day knowing that by beating the Blades we would go above them and possibly finish 8th, now that would have been some achievement.
So just two lapses of concentration have been the difference between a possible 8th finish and potentially 11th.
Of course the situation is what it is, but it does show just how far we have come under Ralph Hasenhuttl this season and how near we are to being a top 10 side again.
We all know that we need a couple of new signings and perhaps this will go a long way to rectifying the situation, but even taking that defeat against Leicester into account, we will end the season in a position that most would have taken after that game, but with frustration it could have been so much more.
The list of points thrown away is endless, Bournemouth at home where we had so much possession and just kept getting caught on the break, add to that Spurs away when they were down to 10 men, Man City a when we gifted them a late winner, Newcastle a another gifted late winner, Wolves h 2-0 up at half time and caught three times on the break West Ham A and of course since the restart when we gifted Arsenal both of their goals through sloppiness , should of buried Everton before leaving Richarlison unmarked for an equaliser and likewise Brighton when we were all at sea and gave them a goal start.
Now we have to let these things go and they are in the past, but all of these games are good pointers to just what we can achieve next season, if we make the right signings and cut out all the errors, most of the games mentioned saw us play well for 95% of the time, but then gift silly goals through individual errors, there are at least 4 goalkeeping mistakes, god knows how many players left unmarked on the break and poor marking in general, whatever people may say far too many for a Premier League team to have in a season.
I am saying this on a positive note, as the season ends we have to learn from these mistakes, because if we can cut them out next season it could be a very exciting one indeed.
So I go into the final day happy that we have achieved so much more than I dared hope at around 10pm on 25th October and indeed in the following 4 weeks, but optimistic that we now have a manager who is a great fit for the club and who has created a team spirit than can carry us through, if we have learned from our mistakes and rectify them in the transfer market and let us be clear, we need new blood in to do so, then next season could be the best one yet of the Premier League era.