It was a satisfying win at Brighton on Monday evening, not just because it was our first Monday night win on TV for 18 years, but because although we didn't play well we still ground out the result, but now we need to start getting back to winning well.
No one can argue with the dogged way Saints dug in and beat the Seagulls on their home patch, but the truth was that we did not play well and haven't done for the last 3 games, at Wolves the signs were there and against Manchester United they reared their ugly heads again, we hoped that they were merely the result of playing better teams, but at Brighton the signs were still there.
Too many players were having off games, there were too many enforced errors and we are suddenly getting a little too cocky and not doing the basics and therefore getting caught on the ball too often.
The good news is these are errors that can be smoothed out on the training ground, so we should be able to get back to winning with not only more ruthlessness but more style.
But on Brighton there was barely a player who didn't get caught on the ball or make an unforced error, even the usually reliable James Ward Prowse and Oriol Romeu although the best of a bad bunch, were guilty of getting caught out.
We now come to a couple of games that are very winnable and if we do so then we could go into the New Year in a very good position, but none of them are easy and starting against Sheffield United we need to get that discipline back into the team.
We are taking too many risks of late in our own back third of the field and teams are getting wise to how we play and are starting to counter it, that was the case at the Amex, Brighton pressed us and although they didn't do so with any great success, occasionally they got a bit too close and either won the ball or hurried us into a poor pass.
Sheffield United arrive on Sunday with the worst start in Premier League history in terms of results, but they are not being beaten by big margins, in 11 games they have conceded only 18 goals, that is only 1 more than us, Manchester United & Liverpool, there problem is scoring goals.
They rely on defending in depth and getting forward quickly, teams have sussed them out now, but if we are not careful we could gift them their 2nd point of the season or even worse their 3rd & 4th as well.
Make no bones about it we were off form against Brighton and it wasn't one player getting caught it was the entire team switching off at one time or another.
Ralph has to get a grip of this and I'm sure he will, if he does then we could perceivably welcome Liverpool on January 2nd with them still in sight and that would be something.
But sorry to press the point, if we keep making these little errors games such as the Manchester United one will become more the norm that the great wins we have achieved this season.
Brighton missed chances that they should not have been given, yes so did we, but luck plays a big part in these things and we have had more than our fair share so far this season, we can't keep relying on it.
So let's get back to winning well, it is good to see that we can win ugly when we need to, there will be plenty of times we will have to do that I'm sure, so let's not make it more times than we need to as we did on Monday evening.