A good performance all undone by two lapses in concentration mean that Saints dropped back into the bottom three, but they are still in touch with the clubs above them.
Saints showed that going forward they are a good side creating several good chances early on against Newcastle that made the keeper work, the team looked in confident mood and after a good first half well deserved the lead shortly after the break with Danny Ings running through and putting it past the keeper and at this stage there looked only one winner.
But lapses in concentration again cost us dearly as did late goals, with just over 20 mins to go Jonjo Shelvey was again a thorn in Saints side as he ran in unmarked to head home, no one followed his run and truthfully at the height the ball was at we really should have cleared it anyway.
Saints still kept the upper hand, but again with only 3 minutes remaining we handed a goal to the opposition, yes the shot from distance swerved and maybe took a slight deflection but it was close to Alex McCarthy and if he couldn't hold it he should have got it out of the danger zone rather than push it only a few yards in front of him where the onrushing Fernandez was quickest to react to blast it home with the keeper still struggling to get up and block it.
This was three points dropped, three points that would have seen us up to 14th.
Ralph Hasenhuttl must be tearing his hair out, every game he puts out a side that competes, but every game he is let down by poor defending, but what can he do, if he drops one player then the man coming in does no better.
In our last three away games we have taken just a single point, in each game we have conceded a late late goal that really should have been prevented, if we had not done so then today we would be 4 points better off and now 12th.
This highlights what I have been saying for a long time, we are not a bad side, we are just et down week in week out by individuals that are no up to the job and this could cost us dearly.
At this level you have to concentrate for the entire game and we don't and we pay the price.
We will win some games and lose some, but the stark reality is that we need a defender in January, he needs to be experienced and tried and trusted at this level.
Look at those teams like Newcastle, Palace and Sheffield United, they are up where they are not because they score a lot of goals, but because they don't let many in, we have to shore up at the back in January, to be blunt anyone would be better than what we have at present.
Kevin Danso seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth, he hasn't ever been played in the position he was signed to play and his last appearance came almost six weeks ago and he has rarely even been on the bench.
Clearly he is not rated by Ralph Hasenhuttl, but given our central defensive woes it is surprising he hasn't at least tried him.
So we go into the weekend with some sort of confidence, but we need to win and we need to have a game where we don't concede and more importantly if we do it is not a soft gifted goal, the fact that we are where we are is testimony that we are not a bad side, we just have poor defenders.