Saints gained their first victory of the Premier League season at the 10th attempt, so what changed on Saturday ? Was it down to the manager, the tactics & the players, or was it all just down to luck.
There was something a little different in the way that Southampton played against Everton to claim a vital 1-0 victory, that took them off the bottom of the table and within sight of safety, but what was it down to, that is the big question.
For the first 9 games of the Premier League season, Saints have been an accident waiting to happen in each game, as they conceded goal after goal that was down to errors resulting from the possession football tactics that saw us getting constantly closed down and losing the ball as we tried to pass it in situations that were clearly too tight to do so in.
Against Everton we seemed to have adapted these tactic a little from the previous 9 games, yes we still passed the ball around, too much on some occasions, but we stopped short of some of the kamikaze passes along our own back line that have characterised this season so far.
But whose decision was it to change the tactics a little, has Russell Martin finally woken up and smelled the roses as they say and realised that if he stuck obstinately to his guns, then his tenure at St Mary's could be measured in hours if he lost this game.
You would hope that this is the case, Martin has always said he is learning along the way in football management and that was always going to be the case in his first season as a manager in the Premier League.
The hope at the start of the season was that he would realise quickly that in order for Saints to survive then he would have to adapt his tactics to suit the squad he had at his disposal, rather than try to force them to play possession football when their instincts told them otherwise. but it was soon realised that was not going to be the case and we watched game after game where the players played to his orders and kept losing the ball after trying to play in tight situations that were quite frankly not on.
Saturday's win seemed to have a subtle change, when we needed to clear the ball we did so, we didn't try to keep passing as in previous games, I would hope that was down to Russell Martin, but there is also that nagging doubt that it wasn't so much the manager, but more down to the players themselves. Did the senior experienced members of the squad lead by example and follow their instincts.
In truth not a lot changed, but just clearing our lines when needed was enough for us to earn our first clean sheet of the season, not just in the Premier League, but in any competition, although we did have to ride our luck on more than a few occasions.
The team looked far more comfortable than they have done all season, yes this wasn't a great performance in terms of creating chances, but things were never going to turn completely around in the space of one game, it was always going to be about small steps forward, gaining the first win and building on it.
This we did and we earned the win on hard work from every player in the squad and that was the most positive thing on show.
One thing that no one can accuse our squad of is a lack of effort, that has always been there, the team have battled for their manager and that bodes well for the upcoming games.
But will Russell Martin now build on the foundations of this game, or will he tear them apart and insist his players revert back to the full on tactics of the opening games of this season.
I have read some negative comments about the win over Everton, some Saints supporters have expressed some disappointment in it, from the perspective that it has kept Russell Martin in a job for another week.
Whilst everyone is entitled to their own opinion, this is not my viewpoint, yes I have been critical of the manager, but in the long term I would prefer him to succeed rather than fail and that goes for every Southampton manager or player for that matter.
Of course there are those that I am not so fond of as others, but I would rather Russell Martin win the next 3 games with Jack Stephens as man of the match in each, than lose them all.
So on to Wolverhampton Wanderers next week and hopefully another step forward in the right direction.