It was the same old problems that let us down as yet another goal was conceded by giving the opposition a free header in our own penalty area, this is perhaps the single most reason that will send us down.
Saints didn't play badly at the London Stadium for most of the 90 minutes, but that counted for nothing as once again an opponent was left unmarked barely 6 yards out from goal and allowed a completely free header.
There can be no excuse for this, especially this particular goal that came from a free kick a long way out from the goal area, we had plenty of time to make sure that we had every West Ham player marked.
For a moment there seemed to be relief, up went the lineman's flag, then came the usual VAR farce, how simple is it to check a goal, whilst they were checking it, I left my seat, walked to the toilet, went in, came back out, chatted to somebody and got back to my seat, all before the goal was finally after about 4 minutes allowed.
This is killing the game, I am for VAR, but it has to be with the proviso that it is about getting most decisions right, not all of them, this is not cricket where the game is stop start, it is about getting the clear and obvious, not drawing lines and then more lines, I can only surmise that those in charge of doing it are paid by the minute and thus stretch things out.
How many times have we seen this type of goal conceded this season, it was happening under Ralph Hasenhuttl, still went on under Nathan Jones and Ruben Selles does not seem to have improved the situation much.
I have lost count of the number of points that we have dropped this season from a free header from a set piece situation, certainly if we had marked our men on half of those that we conceded we would not be in the bottom 3 at the moment or for that matter at any time in this season.
I have been saying that we need to sign an experienced central defender who can hold a line and organise a defence for 6 years now since Van Dijk & Fonte left in January 2017, yet in those 6 years we have yet to sign one player who has these credentials, despite the fact that there were several such candidates available last summer, notably Ben Mee who joined Brentford for Burnley and has turned them into a tight unit at the back.
If we are relegated then this won't be because of this game, it will have been caused by a failure last summer to sign the Mee or someone like him and lets be blunt it has been blatantly obvious for a long time now.
Caleta-Car & Bednarek didn't have bad games, in the main they defended well, but it was all undone by this one moment, we cannot defend dead ball situations.
Aside from this one moment it was a tense game from both sides, Saints looked comfortable and that was part of the problem, we were too content to sit back and not press forward.
We didn't do that with any great urgency till the final 18 minutes when we brought on Tall Paul Onauchu and Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Onauchu almost rescued a point in the final minutes when he saw his header crash against the bar, but this was too little too late and we went out in this game with a whimper.
But although we look down we are not out, there are still 6 teams above us within 4 points, there is still time and as long as we have a chance then we have to keep believing and keep fighting.
This Saints side is not a poor one, it is one that lacks a leader in the centre of defence, if we had one then we would have at least 6 extra points this season perhaps more.
In some respects this verdict was hard to write, but in others it wasn't in that I have been writing the same things now for 6 years, I could have cut and pasted verdicts from across that time and just changed the names, it is deja vu, but it really should not be happening for this long without it being dealt with.