Saints threw the game away from a winning position, on a night when everything came home to roost for Mauricio Pellegrino.
I almost felt sorry for Mauricio Pellegrino last night, in many respects it wasn't all his fault, injuries had reduced his back four to a virtual second string line up, had taken away his top scorer and add to that the transfer window has not had time to kick in and there are some mitigating circumstances for the manager.
But the problem is these things happen and if Pellegrino had performed to the standards expected of him in the previous 21 games then nights like this can be seen as just one of those things, unfortunately for the manager that is now not the case and we remain out of the bottom three only on gol difference.
It started so well though, Saints dominated the first half and went into the break with a deserved lead through a well taken Shane Long goal, indeed the second half looked more likely to see a goal from the home side seal a win that Palace threaten.
But again Pellegrino was not pro active and he was barely reactive, Roy Hodgson made a change just after the hour that saw Palace take ff a defender and put on a midfielder and suddenly the flow of the game changed and Saints were on the back foot.
In fairness Pellegrino had Davis stripped off and ready to go on, but did not throw him into the fray when the game stopped presumably because we were defending and we paid dearly.
You could see the Palace goal coming, firstly Shane Long made a clean tackle but the referee pulled the game back and gave a free kick, Long himself cleared the free kick but the ball was worked out wide and put back in and there was McCarthur completely unmarked to fire home from close range, if he hadn't put the ball in the net there were another two of his colleagues unmarked alongside him.
Saints concede most goals in two ways, the first goal was textbook Saints lapse of concentration, none of the defence was marking anyone, there was no organisation, no marking, no concentration and we keep paying the price.
If that was our first way of conceding our second was not far off, an unmarked man sweeping the ball home from about 25 yards and that happened 10 minutes later.
Saints huffed and puffed in the final minutes of the game and should have had a penalty as Gabbiadini was hauled back by his shirt, TV replays showing it was a massive tug that surely should have been spotted by the referee.
Roy Hodgson is much derided as a manager, indeed Saints fans were up in arms when it was suggsted that he might manage the club, but he showed courage and foresight in his substitutions, once again from Pellegrino we just got like for like, why does he never consider taking off a defender and putting on an attacker or midfielder for instance.
But ultimately what cost us was our failure to deal with stuff at the back, a couple of years ago we would have seen this game out comfortably, but we did not have the quality there, 3 of our 4 defenders would not have got into our first choice back four at any time in the last four years, indeed I would say they would not get into any other Premier League back four and their lies the problem, teams know our weakness's.
Benteke must have been rubbing his hands when he saw our defence, certainly Hodgson would have pointed out our weaknesses to his team and they exploited them to the full, it is no coincidence why so many of the goals we concede are in the same manner, we get pushed back too deep and we lose concentration and leave men unmarked, that also means our midfield drops deep and allows the opposition to pick their spot from distance and too often it goes in, as I say it happens week in week out it is no coincidence.
The only bright spot in this game is that when we get Soares and Hoedt back in it will give us more stability, add a quality central defender in the transfer window and we can be almost as strong at the back as we used to be.
I will no doubt get a bit of stick suggesting that I have an agenda against certain players, this is far from the truth, I say it how I see it and week in week out I see goals conceded by an unmarked player in our penalty box, last night, Huddersfield, Arsenal, Burnley, Leicester, thats 4 out of the last 6 home games where someone has had an easy finish because he hasn't been marked, it has cost us 6 points at least, with those points we would today be 10th, instead we are 17th, that is how tight football is and what margins we have to work too.
Im sorry but loyalty and 100% commitment are not enough, last night we put out a Championship standard back four and we paid a heavy price that may see us back in the Championship because of this result.
Things look grim for Saints, but we have to try and take this result as part of circumstance, if we had lost with a fully fit squad then I would be very worried, but we have players t come back from injury and hopefully before our next league game a player or two signed in the transfer window.
But the overall problem is sadly the manager, you have to question whether things have now gone too far for him to turn it around, I can see where the board are coming from, we do not want to go back to being a club that sacks managers at the drop of a hat, but sometimes you have to do this, this is our worst ever Premier league run we have gone 9 games without a win, something has to change.