Saints FA Cup dreams came to an end in what ended as a comprehensive defeat to Manchester City, although for 75 minutes Saints fought all the way and looked like they might sneak a result.
Ralph Hasenhuttl didn't quite put out his strongest side, in essence he left his first choice striking pairing on the bench and as Jan Bednarek was not joining them, you have to assume that Jack Stephens in the back four was an enforced change.
The game plan seemed to be simple, still be in the game in the final 20 minutes and then bring on Armando Broja & Che Adams to run at them.
The first half was fairly even, Saints could have gone ahead and hit the post through an Adam Armstrong shot, but after 12 minutes we shot ourselves in the foot when we failed to execute a simple clearance in the box and scuffed it to the opposition who had the ball in the net within seconds.
When you are playing a team like City you cannot afford to hand them chances like this.
This did not deter Saints though, they dug in, survived one scare when City thumped a chance against the post and then on the stroke of half time had a stroke of luck when La Porte deflected a cross into his own goal.
At half time things looked ok, we were on level terms at half time and battling hard.
But with Mike Dean refereeing you are always only a few seconds away from a controversial decision and that came just after the hour when he pointed to the spot after Mohammed Salisu touched Jesus, ironically with Broja & Adams on the touchline waiting for the ball to go out of play and Ralph ready to implement the second phase of his plan with 15 minutes left on the clock.
In truth it was a harsh penalty, but with Jesus going nowhere, it was a little naive of Salisu to even put a hand on him, he went down and Dean pointed to the spot, it was never going to get overturned as Salisu had touched the player, no matter how gentle it might have been!
Saints were 2-1 down but not beaten and they battled back, Che Adams saw a good effort well saved but with 15 minutes left suddenly City clicked into gear.
You cannot argue with the quality of City's third goal, a curling shot by Phil Foden and then 3 minutes later Mahrez coolly slipped a sublime shot into the bottom corner.
With 12 minutes left it suddenly had gone from a competitive game to a potential rout, there weren't many in the ground that thought that this would be the last City goal of the game, but Saints hung on and the game ended 4-1.
It was a disappointing ending, for 75 minutes Saints had competed, both of City's goals had been handed to them by rash play, we had given them a game, but truth is the gap between the class of the players of the two teams was just too wide, sometimes you can breech that by sheer effort, but you still need to make no mistakes and also ride your luck.
Watching their players against ours was a lesson in what makes a truly class player and that is quick feet, they could literally dance round our players and we kicked at where the ball was and met only fresh air.
Those who ranted at the result after the game, should take a moment to consider the gulf between clubs like Saints and the likes of Manchester City, indeed few teams in the Premier League can match them, even fringe players like Jack Grealish cost them £100 million.
All you can do is battle hard and hope for the luck, we did that twice in the Premier League and got two points out of it, sadly this was not our day.
But it was not a result that reflected the game, yes City had the bulk of possession, they had 19 shots, but we had 13, they only had 6 shots on target though, but they were clinical with their shots and we weren't, we got only 3 on target and we really should have done better.
Suddenly in the space of a fortnight our season has changed, we went to Villa with hopes of a top 7 finish and an FA Cup semi final, 4 games and 4 defeats later, both dreams are ended.
But that is football, sadly until a European Super League comes in and the likes of City & Liverpool leave the Premier League and join it then this is the state of football, few clubs these days break the big club monopoly.
Even the Big Six is dead, it is now a Gigantic Two, City & Liverpool and then the other four, that may also change with the emergence of Newcastle as a mega rich club.
Look at the semi finals, 3 of the 4 teams are the top 3 in the Premier League, Crystal Palace the token also ran side this season.
Even the League cup is now a Manchester/Liverpool thing after this seasons final, itself competed for by two of the top three.
So we are out of the cup, let's just be proud we got to the quarter finals and for 75 minutes gave them a game .
There is still a lot to play for this season, we now need to find our form again and try to finish in the top 10, we have a side that is competitive again in the "have not's" section of the Premier League, lets just enjoy watching our team with no pressure on it.