Saints looked deflated from the start but hung on in there to earn a decent point from a game that they would have lost a few months ago.
Palace came with a game plan and that was to stifle Saints and go on the break and they had the better of the early exchanges although Saints had their moments not least a Hojbjerg shot that was well saved by the keeper.
But just as Saints looked to have weathered the storm and got into half time all square Wilfred Saha popped up as the far post and squeezed in a shot at the near post which to be fair looked like one the keeper should have had the angles covered.
Indeed Alex McCarthy didn't look happy all night especially on crosses where he came and flapped on a couple of occasions not least late in the second half where he ran into one of his own players completely failing to get anywhere near the ball, luckily Sakho blazed over from close range when it looked easier to score.
That left Saints still only a goal behind and although they weren't playing well they never gave up, on came Elyounoussi in the 75th minute as Ralph Hasenhuttl looked to try and change the pattern of the game and Elyounoussi was the only flare player he had on the bench able to do that.
Within minutes Saints were level and although Elyounoussi was not directly responsible a well worked move saw Armstrong lay the ball to Targett who made a great run to the byeline and then pulled the ball back perfectly to James Ward Prowse who scored for the third game running.
For the final 13 minutes the crowd found it's voice, the players found momentum and Palace were on the ropes, but the final minutes would be more about the referee, Andre Marriner had not been great all game and bizarrely he attended to a Palace player down with a head injury in our penalty area as the game wen on behind him.
With three minutes to go an innocuous clash between Wilfrid Saha and James Ward Prowse escalated, our man who was capping another decent performance seemingly stemming from a change in his mindset that has suddenly brought his nasty streak to the fore refused to be bullied by Saha who whinged because he felt he should have had a foul, a booking for waving his arms at JWP who was clearly goading him suddenly became a red after he was booked for sarcastic clapping of the ref and then repeatably trying to get to the ref to give him more abuse.
The upshot though was it took the momentum out of Saints game, Marriner despite five substitutions, some injuries and a good 2 minutes plus to sort out this problem only added 3 minutes of injury time and this was barely time for Saints to get their head of steam up again.
This was a game of contrasts, on one hand it was a disappointing performance for most of the game, on the other it was a well earned point from a team that kept it's shape and kept it's spirit and never gave up.
It also posed several questions for the manager, the first is about the goalkeeper, Alex McCarthy looked shaky all evening and repeatably failed to deal with crosses and command his box, could we see Gunn back for the trip to Burnley, I wouldn't discount it.
Secondly there is the defensive situation, we need more quality at the back and I don't think the return of Yoshida is good enough to bring that to the defence, too many times Palace were dancing around us and we looked over run, to our credit we hung on in there, but Palace missed a couple of good opportunities when they found themselves unmarked, this has to be stopped.
We also need another attacking option, Ings and Redmond had quiet games they found themselves tightly marked, till the final minutes we did not have enough attacking support for them, we were thin on the bench in that respect.
But overall this was a good point, you can't win every game and a year ago we lost this fixture in similar circumstances, the mid week fixtures saw us move a point more clearer away from the drop zone so that is a move in the right direction.
Nothing is going to be easy but we travel to Burnley on the back of a four game unbeaten run and at the start of the year we would have taken 8 points from these four games, in fact we would have been happy with 5.
So we still continue to go forward, we should remember that we still need to improve the squad, but the foundations are there to be built on, we have key players coming back to fitness soon and when the likes of Lemina, Bertrand, Obafemi and even Austin are available that will give Ralph Hasenhuttl more to work with.