Saints go into the last two games of the season with their hopes of automatic promotion ended, even the hope of finishing 3rd is only a point away from being ended, but they do have something to play for and that is getting back the togetherness, character & fight Russell Martin has recently be moaned.
Just a week ago Automatic promotion looked a distinct possibility for Southampton, but two games later and it has been dashed and indeed the way we capitulated at Leicester suggested that this is a squad that is disenchanted with it's manager.
I don't blame individual players here, but the way that certain players have gone from being world beaters to looking poor is only down to one thing.
Two months ago Ryan Fraser looked unplayable, he was a vital member of our side, but chopping and changing him has shattered his confidence and knocked the fight out of him, he is far from being alone in this.
So now we face Stoke and although the result does not matter one iota, the manner of our performance does.
But the issue here is going to be the manager, he will do just what has been the problem in the first place, he will replace good players with inferior ones, he will change for changes sake and this will do nothing to restore the fight that he bemoans.
Indeed Russell Martin would do well to take a long had look at why his squad no longer has the togetherness, the Character and the fight that he says was lacking at Leicester.
In a professional football squad the players bring their talents, the man who builds that togetherness, character & fight to the table is the manager.
When he built the unbeaten run he did so on a solid first choice team that knew it's job and in the main played week in week out, the defence was tight, it was the same players week in week out, there was no squad rotation or giving people a game to keep them match sharp, it was KWP, THB, Jan Bednarek and then Manning or Bree, Mason Holgate even after a man of the match performance couldn't even get a game off the bench.
But that all changed in January and from then on we were struggling, perhaps because we had too many options, the manager was determined to play certain players, not just the obvious, but David Brooks for instance, there is clearly an agreement with Bournemouth that Brooks has to have game time and that has cost us, I like Brooks as a player, but his performances of late haven't justified his selection of late, the casualty here has been Ryan Fraser who found himself on the bench when it was not deserved.
The bizarre decision to jump Alex McCarthy over Joe Lumley when he wasn't even in the squad, that sends a message to the squad and it unsettles them, players want surety, they want to know where they stand, this erodes that togetherness Character & fight.
So this is a big game for Russell Martin, we should be heading into the play offs with confidence, but we are heading into it a squad in turmoil and it is hard to see how we are going to turn that around quickly.
So the most important thing about the game against Stoke will be the team selection, it will be the first indication of whether Martin has the skills to turn this around.
The performance in this game will be more important than the result, can Martin pick the right players who will play for their own pride or has he alienated some key players and there will be no coming back.
Stoke themselves arrive with a nervous glance over their shoulder, with two games to go they are 4 points above the last relegation place, so they are not yet safe, it would take a big set of results to send them down, but defeat to us might well see them going into the final day still not safe.
What Russell Martin does next is key to this weekend, can he fire up the players, but just as important can he fire up the fans, we should be buoyant at this stage of the season, but it doesn't feel like that, it almost feels like we have been relegated.
We are still in with a great chance of promotion, but at the moment we have a manager who doesn't know what to do next, we have a squad and a fanbase that is disillusioned and at a low ebb.
It needs a catalyst to change this, I would be highly surprised if Russell Martin was sacked, but other than that how can things change.
There is hope, we have to go back to the 1990's when we fought relegation battles, back then we were awful for large parts of the season, sometimes under managers that were part of the problem, sometimes because we just didn't have the squads that others had.
But at the end of each season, the Saints supporters would be up for it, they would inspire the players, they would create that togetherness, that character and that fight that the Spirit Of Southampton as it was dubbed back then epitomised.
If Saints don't go up it will not be the fans fault, they have done everything and beyond this season, they have travelled in numbers up and down the country and expected this last week to be triumphal.
It isn't so now we have to get ourselves up for the last 4 games of the season and get the team to Wembley.
St Mary's tomorrow can either be a graveyard or it can be a cauldron of noise that gives the inspiration to our players that the manager clearly cannot manage to do.
Our current CEO seems to think that fervent supporters can be manufactured, supply a home end and we will immediately have a wall of sound, that is not the case, football support is not about manufacturing thins, it is about passion, against Stoke we need to show that we have passion, we need to instil it into our players, if for nothing else as I cannot see it coming from the manager.