Back in November Saints fans were looking over their shoulders rather than up the table, even as late as mid December, a 3-0 defeat at Arsenal saw us on a downward slope, but suddenly things changed.
Those Saints fans walking out of the Emirates just over two months ago on 15th December were not in a happy mood, we had been well beaten and had taken only two points in the past 5 games.
A few days later at Crystal Palace with half an hour gone things were looking even worse, a goal down after only 2 minutes and Palace should really have been 3-0 up at this stage and were cruising.
But then came 2 goals in 4 minutes, James Ward Prowse's trade mark free kick and Armando Broja changing not only the game but the course of the season.
Since that defeat at Arsenal we have lost only once in 9 outings, something that was unthinkable in that awful opening half hour at Selhurst Park.
Now though things are far different, we have found a team spirit and we have found a way of playing to our own strengths and we are now looking more at the top 10 than the bottom 3.
After the victory on Saturday against Everton we cemented our right to be in the top 10, Leicester have games in hand, but after their defeat at Wolves only two and to overtake us they need to win both.
So we have managed to put a gap between us and 11th, but perhaps more importantly we have closed what was a 4 point gap between us and Brighton in 9th and after last weekend the Seagulls had a game in hand.
They lost that in midweek at Old Trafford and now we are very much in their rear view mirror just a point behind them and on the same number of games.
We have the chance on Friday evening to jump above them by beating Norwich City, if we do that then they would need to beat Aston Villa the following day to regain 9th.
Sadly at this moment in time at least it is hard to see us finishing any higher than 9th, as it stands at the moment we are 7 points behind Spurs who sit in 8th position on 39 points, but crucially have 2 games in hand on us.
Wolves a point above them in 8th also have a game in hand on us.
That makes it very hard to see anyone breaking into the current top 7 by the end of the season, so although we can speculate about 9th, I think that is going to be the highest we can achieve , we will rue several thrown away games this season, not least that late equaliser at home to Brighton, take just that one kick out of the equation and we would now be 9th on 34 points two clear of the Seagulls, with perhaps a slight chance of catching Spurs or Wolves.
But for Saints every season is a step at a time, the first target is to stay out of relegation trouble and we have done that this season, we are perhaps only one win away from what will be safety or thereabouts come the end of the season, a look at the 10 seasons since we returned to the Premier League shows that only once has it needed more than 36 points to stay up and I think this season will be no different.
It is actually a very interesting picture in the bottom 7 and without those 5 points in the run of death against the two Manchester clubs and Spurs, we might well have been still looking over our own shoulders at this stage.
Before the weekend the current bottom 3 all looked dead and buried, but although Norwich lost at Liverpool, they are still not dead and buried, however shock wins for Burnley at Brighton and Watford at Villa suddenly have made the clubs above them look up and take notice.
17th place and safety currently occupied by Newcastle on goal difference from Everton who are both 4 points above Watford is a big gap , but a not insurmountable one.
Burnley who have been very hard to beat this season and have lost only 9 only 1 more than West Ham in 5th, if they start changing their draws into wins then they could well stay up.
I think Newcastle have shamefully and for that matter shamelessly bought their way out of trouble, Everton have problems, I'm not sure Lampard is the answer there, but they like Newcastle will stay up.
But the two clubs above them, Leeds and Brentford could well get caught.
Brentford have only taken 1 point from their last 7 Premier League fixtures and won just once in their last 10 , four points out of 30 is worse than relegation form and if they repeat that in the next 10 they could well go down.
Leeds are almost as bad, they too are on a downward slope, their poor form goes back even further, since the start of November in a run of 14 Premier League games, they have taken just 13 points, they are keeping their heads above water but only just and their next two games are Liverpool & Spurs.
Isn't it nice to discuss the relegation zone without worrying about it too much, but back to happier things, on Friday we have to do our job, go out and beat Norwich and hit 9th place, if we do that then it will be a moral victory as well as the 3 points from an actual one, we have chased down Brighton all season and they will be feeling the pressure now.
They have been the draw specialists, bizarrely they have won just 3 Premier League games since 19th September, a run that spans 20 games, over half a season, in the first of those games if they had won at Palace they would have gone top, they drew thanks to an injury time equaliser, but have gone to pot since, although 12 of those games have been draws.
But they have lost the last two and suddenly find themselves on a bad run of only 6 points from the last 6 games, a period that has seen us cut what looked an insurmountable lead into just a single point.
So some exciting times coming back to St Mary's, OK we won't be challenging for Europe, but we are still in with a chance of our first top 10 finish since 2017 and that shows the progress we have made.
Ralph Hasenhuttl has built up a great squad, it is very much a squad and not a team and everyone has a role to play, as the fixture list hots up, we need everyman we have to keep the momentum going, just as we found on Saturday when Shane Long, a man who has had some unfair criticism from some showed that in the modern game, you have to have people who can close a game out, it was a bonus that he scored and in some respects made his role for the last 10 minutes redundant, but he was there to do a job, something he has been doing well of late.
Hopefully another near full house on Friday night and hopefully we will leave the stadium in the same spirits we did on Saturday and 9th in the table.