On Monday night there was a season changing moment for Saints, although they themselves were not playing in the actual game in question.
Last season was one of the worst I have seen in many a year fro pessimism in the Saints support, after several years of progress there was an apathy in the supporters that continued into this season and if anything has got worse.
There is an element in our support who now cannot see anything good in the football club and see everything as a negative, be it another defeat, the arrival of a new foreign owner or literally anything else you care to mention, there are some who will claim that this is an example of why the club is now rotten to the core from the tea lady up to Gao !
We seem to be in a never ending circle that will doom us to repeat ourselves endlessly, nothing will be good enough for some and no action will be evidence enough that the club is moving forward, some see everything as evidence that the club is preparing for life in the Championship and the owner would prefer it that way, even spending £20 million on a new signing proves nothing to some, it is merely part of a big masterplan and Gao is prepared to write off £20 million he could bank in his own pocket in order to continue the subterfuge.
So something needs to break the circle, it could perhaps have been the sacking of Mauricio Pellegrino, certainly most supporters whther they be conspiracy theorists or not would agree that he is not performing to the standards expected of a manager of this club, but for some reason the board have kept faith.
At th weekend there was hope that the win at West Brom was setting up the FA Cup as a catalyst, but then three hours later those hopes seem to have been dashed when we were drawn out of the hat with either Wigan or Manchester City.
There wasn't a Saints supporter who thought that we stood a chance at the Etihad, however they didn't think that Wigan stood a chance either.
Now the headlines are all about Wigan, but for Saints fans the story is not about their giant killing act, it is about how the course of our season might have changed with a goal from a journeyman striker who has never scored with regularity above League One level.
Suddenly the season has opened out for Saints, we have gone from getting the draw in the quarter finals that everyone feared to the one that everyone wanted.
With respect to Wigan we have a much better chance against them than all of the other sides left in the competition unlessRochdale pull off a bigger shock.
We beat Wigan and we have a trip to Wembley and we can pull off a result against any of the other sides left in.
But for some this is still no grounds for optimism, they say that Wigan have beaten three Premier League sides in the competition without conceding a goal, although they don't mention that all put out weakened sides.
Wigan will not be a push over, I certainly will not be understimating them, but the reality is we have a better chance now and we should be capable of beating them, after all we have beaten two Premier League sides in our run so why should we be afraid of a League One side.
So this result could well change the season for Saints, it gives us light at the end of the tunnel, it gives us motivation not only to try and get to Wembley twice and perhaps win the FA Cup, but to use that as a catalyst to win games in the Premier League.
A couple of days ago I suggested that Mauricio Pellegrino was only six wins away from perhaps presiding over the best season in our history, many derided this and said we had no chance in the FA Cup, I was wrong it was actully seven wins, six for us and one for Wigan, but make no mistake this competition has now opened out for us.
So perhaps it is time to stop being pessimistic, there has been too much moaning about things before they have actually happened if indeed they actually are, it is time to stop claiming that Saints are already down, stop saying that Wigan have better players than us (Yes I have read that on more than one occasion in the last 12 hours) stop saying that Gao is asset stripping and just deal with reality and that reality is that we are only 90 minutes from Wembley and yes Mauricio Pellegrino might just emulate a manager who when he won the Cup for Saints had put us in a far worse position than we are now.
The last few years have seen the club in a better position than it has been in over three decades, but football is not a smooth ride, not for any club be it Manchester City or Accrington Stanley, it is a roller coaster ride, you have to take the ups and the downs, as anyone who was around when we were being relegated to League One will tell you, when you stick with the team in it's bad moments it makes the good ones all the sweeter.