There was a strange feeling after the game against Everton as Saints secured their first regular league season victory since beating Preston on 16th April, almost 7 months ago, it took guts and a slice of luck here and there but they got the job done.
There were no surprises in Russell Martin's starting line up, Jack Stephens was of course in there and the only change from last week at Manchester City was that Adam Armstrong came in for Tyler Dibling.
It was a tense nervous game, for much of the first half neither keeper had a save to make, Saints looked the better side, just, but Everton looked more dangerous, although the best chance of the half fell to Cameron Archer whose cross shot went just wide.
At half time Adam Lallana who had looked Saints best player, bringing organisation and leadership to the middle of the team, did not reappear and Joe Aribo came on.
The game followed a similar pattern to the first half, but again it was Everton who had the clear cut chances, Aaron Ramsdale having to be at his best on several occasions and overall was Saints man of the match, keeping the first clean sheet of the season and providing the foundations for the win.
As the game entered the final stages, Everton looked more likely winners, but then the game turned within seconds in the 84th minute, firstly Everton crashed a header against the bar from close range, we didn't panic as the ball rebounded, we controlled it and laid it for Mateus Fernandes who ran the ball up field and eventually it was swept across the field to find the overlapping Yuri Sugawara whose superb run to the byeline and pull back found Adam Armstrong who fired home for what proved to be the winner.
But there was still more to come, barely had the Saints supporters stopped the celebrations when Everton had the ball in the net, it looked offside, but there was no flag, VAR took an age to make the decision, but make it they did and the goal was disallowed.
Surprisingly there was only 4 minutes of injury time given the substitutions made and also injuries, that was of course stretched with the game not restarting after the VAR stoppage until the 3rd minute of injury time.
Saints dug in and saw it through to the amazement of the home fans who didn't quite believe that we could hold out.
This was a game that Russell Martin had to win, defeat would have seen us rooted to the bottom of the table and Everton pulling clear of the relegation dogfight, it would surely have been his last game if we had lost.
But there seemed to have been a change in tactics, although we still played the possession football game, we seemed to have adapted it a little, we didn't seem to play it in tight situations, yes we did get caught out sometimes, but for the most part we didn't try to play the ball in impossible situations.
You would hope that this was down to the manager and not so much the players, that may sound strange as of course it was the players who played the game, but was it the manager or the players who decided that change was needed.
This was a team performance and we looked a lot more confident than they have all season, they looked comfortable in the way they played the game, yes of course we had to ride our luck at times, but that is the case for all teams.
It was a performance that most teams need, one where everyone has put in a solid display with several key players going that extra mile, Aaron Ramsdale as mentioned was the man of the match. he was solid all round and produced two World class saves in the second half, but he could not do it all alone, he needed a defence that stood firm and a midfield that finally started to try and play the ball forward.
Adam Lallana was a big part of this in the first half and Mateus Fernandes improves more with every game, he not only pulled the strings, but showed he can roll up his sleeves and work.
Adam Armstrong up front worked his socks off and his goal was a just reward for someone who played such a big part last season but has been written off by some after our return to the top flight.
These players deserve special mentions, but give credit to both Ryan Manning and Jack Stephens, they also played a part in the victory, perhaps most reading this would not have had either in the side, you can accuse them both of many things, but not a lack of commitment and you don't win games in the Premier League carrying passengers and they were not passengers on Saturday.
Now we have something to build on, most had written us off, but we are still only second from bottom and things have changed, that will have some looking over their shoulder, a win at Wolves won't see us out of the bottom 4 unless Palace lose heavily to Fulham and we slaughter Wolves, but we can take a giant step or two.
I always say that good teams don't become bad ones overnight and vice versa and I have never thought we were a bad team, it has been the way we have played possession football that has cost us dearly, on Saturday for the first time we seemed to have adapted and we got the rewards.
There is still a long way to go, but there is hope, essentially if we had held on to win against Ipswich and Leicester we would be above both and on 9 points level with Everton.
Of course that didn't happen so it is all if's and but's, but it shows how close we are to being mid table rather than the bottom, many of the goals conceded have been down to individual error, cut that out and we can move up the table.
For the first time this season there is light at the end of the tunnel, let us hope that Russell Martin has finally seen what was going wrong and is now putting it right, some tough games ahead but having won this one, we can hopefully win a few more.