Firstly lets confirm one thing, a good team does not become a bad one overnight, but having said that there is something that needs changing in the Southampton side.
It seems as if it is one piece of bad luck after another at the moment at Saints and it wasn't just the defeat but the fact that we are losing more players to suspension.
Sheffield United though deserved their win for the way they wanted to take the game to us whilst too many of our players seemed like rabbits caught in the headlights, very few of our men can put their hands on their hearts and say they did themselves justice, we had 63 % possession yet we managed only one shot on target all evening.
That doesn't tell the story of the game though, the Blades were up for it from the start yet we looked lost, our passing game was disjointed and we lacked leadership on the pitch.
Certain players should be stepping up to the plate at the moment and they are not doing that, Jose Fonte is the Captain and had been in the best form of his Saints career up to a few weeks ago, now he is a shadow of his former self and in the worst form of the five years he has been here.
In times of trouble you look to senior players for that guidance, you look to them to stand strong and lead by example, but this just wasn't the case last night, the senior members of the squad were hiding, in my opinion only Shane Long and James Ward Prowse put themselves about and looked like they wanted it.
We were second to every ball and got too many bookings because we failed to deal with fairly simple balls, Nathaniel Clyne's yellow card was a fine example of this when he went to clear the ball and instead of doing so in a confident manner swung a leg, missed it completely and scythed down his opponent, he was not the only culprit.
The winning goal was poor defending, the Saints wall crumbled and Fraser Forster did well to save the shot that flew through his own wall and the Blades were always going to be first to the rebound, again a lack of discipline and leadership at a key moment and we defended like a Sunday league team, if the wall had done its job then perhaps the result may have been different.
This was a big disappointment, that cannot be denied, but we have to take it on the chin and move on, we are still fifth in the league and we still have the FA Cup to look forward to, the season is far from over and we would have all taken this scenario back in August.
There can be no doubt that Saints have suffered many blows in the last few weeks that have left us short in the squad, but this although a factor last night was not the main cause of this defeat, that has to be lain firmly at the feet of most of the players who went out there last night and put in performances that are unacceptable for players of their level, hopefully now they will use this as the kick up the rear that some of them clearly need and we can get back to winning ways.
Good luck to Sheffield United in the semi's, yes there were reasons why we played badly, but you wanted the game more than us and took your chance when it came, you are in the semi finals on merit and we are out because we played like an ill disciplined rabble
Jose Fonte has admitted that the side let down the 4,500 fans who travelled up to Yorkshire, but words are cheap, the real way to make amends is to win a few games again.