On the previous five occasions that Saints have played the Hammers at the London Stadium it has been a case of the winning side has always scored 3 goals, this see saw game was no different.
There were a few surprises in the Saints team when the line ups were announced, in came Fraser Forster and Jan Bednarek, with Che Adams, Adam & Stuart Armstrong all on the bench, but missing from the squad were Lyanco, Jack Stephens and Nathan Tella none of whom were named amongst the substitutes, in these days easy conclusion to jump to would be that they have gone down with the dreaded Covid.
From the start though Saints looked determined, although we haven't won in the last five games, we have only lost two of them and has some bad luck along the way and the grit and determination shown at Palace last time out was still there for all to see.
Saints early play was rewarded after only 8 minutes when some good work from Kyle Walker Peters found Mohamed Elyounoussi who with little back lift fired home from 25 yards.
It stayed that way till half time, although at times Saints looked a bit dodgy at the back especially at corners where Fraser Forster was struggling to get through the crowds of players, but he always seemed to get something on the ball even though it was not as clean as we would have hoped for the nerves.
We suspected the second half would be a lot more tense than the first and the Hammers made a double substitution and on came Michael Antonio and within 3 minutes he had pulled us level, yet again a failure to win a ball from a corner and with the ball headed back across goal he headed in from close range, VAR took a long look but he was on by centimetre's
This was the cue for Saints to fall apart. but although the pressure piled on they didn't, on the hour mark Armando Broja battled hard to charge through the defence and was brought down in the area, it was another long hard look, but it went our way and James Ward Prowse was clinical from the spot.
But the lead lasted only 3 minutes and Said Benrahama ghosted in to put the Hammers level again.
This was the cue for Saints to fall apart, but although the pressure piled on they didn't and Broja won a free kick 35 yards out on the left and James Ward Prowse put the perfect inswinging ball that defenders and keeper hate, usually our defenders and keeper, but there was Jan Bednarek to head home.
Twenty minutes left on the clock and a long way to go, but we had two good omens to help us, the first was we had scored 3 and the side that scores 3 always wins this fixture at the London Stadium, the second was when Stuart Armstrong entered the fray in the 89th minute, all our previous 3 wins this season in the Premier League have been achieved with the Scotsman in the side and this was to be no different.
This was a win ground out with many things, some good all round play and some good old roll up your sleeves, dig in and battle through tough times.
It wasn't pretty to watch in terms of the fact that we rode our luck at times and the game could have gone anyway, but it was pleasing in that we put out a team that was still missing some key players in the starting line up and we got all three points.
We have a spirit that sees us through games, we are far from being the finished article, there are still a few areas that need addressing, but we have a decent squad that can get better and is improving all the time.
It is also a win that gives us some breathing space and with one game to go before the half way mark we have 20 points and that is a good foundation for the second half of the season.
There have been many who have slammed the fact that we have given away so many points after leading in a game, I'm sure they felt this was going to be another of those games for most of this one, but our spirit carried us through.
The situation with the Chairman is what it is, perhaps in the next week or so there will be a new owner and maybe some funds for transfers, but till then we have to carry on doing what we are doing and keeping our heads above water.
We will have wins like this that are satisfying because we have achieved them against the odds and we will have games when things don't go our way, that is football, but today was a win to savour, I enjoyed it Happy Christmas Everyone !