Claude Puel gambled by making multiple changes again and he would have gotten away with it too if it hadn't been for those meddling kids.
The initial thought of many Saints fans when they saw the starting line up for the trip to Norwich City was that Claude Puel was metaphorically committing footballing suicide, in terms of his job he seemed willing to stand on a stool with a noose around his neck and wait for someone to kick it away.
However although he gambled, he did at least keep a strong back four in place although with no Fonte even on the bench he had no back up central defender.
Strangest decision was to give a debut to 19 year old keeper Harry Lewis, I can see why he did it, but you have to ask the question who will be on the bench on Wednesday night, will it be Lewis or Stuart Taylor, I would imagine that Puel would go for the experienced Taylor for that one and if so surely it would have been better to give him a game to sharpen his reflexes.
But Puel was confident that his virtual second string would be good enough to beat Norwich's side, itself weakened by a few changes.
The first half was textbook for Saints, they got on top of the game, dominated possession, created chances and took a deserved lead before half time when Virgil Van Dijk ghosted in at the far post to crash home a half volley.
At this stage you thought there would be only one winner, but shortly after the break we conceded a soft goal, Lewis who apart from this error had a good game, tried to take a touch from a VVD back pass and i was too heavy, as Jerome nicked the ball Lewis panicked and brought him down when there was really no need with the player heading away from the goal and out of the area, penalty and 1-1.
But Saints kept their composure and Yoshida headed home from a Hojbjerg cross, a goal that surely won't be bettered this season for a header.
From this point Saints should have won it and for the remaining 23 minutes of normal time and 2 of the 3 minutes of injury time you would not have bet against it, but then all the good work was undone in that final minute of injury time, Saints lost concentration and left Naismith with a free header to equalise.
In many respects Puel's gamble has paid off, we got the team spirit and confidence back up again , we have come through this game without injury or a sending off and will now hopefully have a virtually full squad to pick from against Liverpool.
Puel has been able to get down off his stool and take off the noose at least for the time being, but this was not a total success and indeed although it has silenced his critics a little, the real test is on Wednesday night when he needs to show the supporters that he knows what his strongest side is and puts it out to get a result against Liverpool.
What the fans know is that we have a strong starting XI and some experienced back up, what we also know is that we have some promising youngsters, but some are not as promising as others and that in most instances, slotting them in en masse is a recipe for disaster.
Against Championship Norwich you can get away with a bit of rotation, against Liverpool we need to be going all guns blazing and we need a team of experienced players who know what the job is all about, ask 30,000 Saints fans what the team against Liverpool should be and you would not get much deviation, for perhaps the first time this season Puel needs to stop being too clever and go with proven experience.
The game against Norwich has been a small step forward, we are still in the cup and the season is still alive, on Wednesday the manager needs to show the fans he knows what he is doing and has what it takes.