Saints went to Leeds with high hopes of a first win in 8 games, but ultimately they were overrun late on by a Leeds United side who pour caution to the wind and attack in droves and defend with gusto.
There can be no real excuses for this defeat, no contentious VAR calls it was down to our own ability to stay in shape and deal with the Leeds United way of playing football and that is breaking from deep and hitting you hard and fast.
The shock of the day was the changes to the starting line up by Ralph Hasenhuttl, out went Danny Ings, Minamino & Djenepo and in came Adams, Armstrong & surprisingly Nathan Tella for his debut.
But defeat cannot be blamed on a weak side, the starting XI were the better side in the first half and could have and really should have taken the lead, but after Marcelo Bielsa tweaked his side the warning signs were there for Saints.
The real drama of the game came just before the break, firstly the lively Tella on his full debut went down in the area and Andre Marriner pointed to the spot, VAR of course looked at it and when the replays were shown there probably wasn't a Saints fan who would have given the penalty, I stop short at saying Tella dived, but he seemed to clip his own heels after touching his opponents leg.
So no one could argue about that incident, but there was a contentious decision, Saints won a free kick, but referee Marriner's mind seemed to be elsewhere as he ambled away from the position, Saints assuming that they could take the free kick and did so, finding Che Adams in space who fired home, but Marriner who had blown almost simultaneously as Saints took the free kick, blew again just as the ball reached Adams and insisted that the kick be re taken as he hadn't blown the whistle.
The ruling was a moot point, not every free kick needs the whistle to be blown and Marriner was making no effort to blow his, so it was a reasonable assumption that we could take it quickly, this didn't cost us the game, but it didn't help.
The half ended with Saints having had much the better of the play and the chances on what was a slippery pitch which in truth was dangerous with players slipping over all the time, often when they were no where near the ball.
Saints started well after the break and could have been a goal up in the first minute after the restart, however the shot was straight at the keeper and the ball was sent long to find Bamford on his own on the half way line, he still had a lot to do but despite the best efforts of Bednarek & Vestergaard he still did it and seconds after potentially going a goal up we were a goal down.
It was now end to end stuff and the game was in a pattern, Saints attacked and then Leeds counter attacked, for the next 30 minutes it could have gone either way, although it was Leeds who created the best chances and it was a combination of Alex McCarthy & poor finishing that meant as the last 10 minutes loomed it was still 1-0.
But it was Leeds who would get the second and decisive goal to put the game to bed, Bielsa had switched their fastest player Raphina from the right to the left to take on Bednarek at right back and we just couldn't deal with his pace, we should have done something to counter this, even switch Ryan Bertrand to right back or at least provided Bednarek with cover, he battled gamely, but it was a race he couldn't win.
As the game reached it's final stages Saints still kept going forward even after losing Romeu to an ankle injury sustained when the pitch gave way on him, but we were prone to the counter and Leeds had targeted our full backs.
Indeed on one counter attack, the home side looked certain to double their lead, but Oriol Romeu kept up the chase in what looked a lost cause and then made perhaps the best tackle I have seen in any game Saints or otherwise to stop a certain goal.
On 78 minutes we were caught on the break again and this time neither the keeper or Leeds themselves missing could stop a goal.
Six minutes later and a free kick saw Leeds get a 3-0 scoreline that both flattered them, and was a testament to their counter attacking game.
No excuses for this game, Nathan Tella aside, the starting XI and all three subs were experienced players, this was not a squad having to play teenagers, we should really have done better.
Certainly if Kyle Walker Peters had been in the side we would have coped better, but it was our own indiscipline that cost us this one, we played into Leeds hands, we tried to play them at their own game, we pushed people forward, but we didn't leave anyone covering the central defenders and we left them exposed for pace.
We can roll out all the stats to show we more than matched Leeds in every area, but truth is we let them draw us into playing the game on their terms and not ours.
In many respects this was the most disappointing game of the last 8 in the Premier League, we had virtually a full side to pick from and we failed,