Southampton put in a well drilled, if at times error strewn performance at Goodison Park, but they came through in the penalty shootout after finding six players who can take a decent penalty.
Both teams made changes with Sean Dyche once again making excuses as to why his side was down to the bare bones, whereas Russell Martin even though he made 10 changes to the starting line up, could still put out a starting XI full of experience, with only the one survivor of the starting line up Lesley Ugochukwu relatively inexperienced at this level.
Saints of course played their possession football game and had the lions share of the ball, but it was the hosts who were more direct in the early stages and they reaped the rewards when Alex McCarthy came and flapped at a cross and with 3 Everton players marked by just 1 Saints defender at the far post, it was Abdoulaye Doucoure who had a free header from close range to open the scoring after 20 minutes.
But Southampton would only be behind for 12 minutes, Charlie Taylor putting in a superb cross for Taylor Harwood Bellis to head home.
This was just about Saints real effort of the half so far and they started to get back into the game, keeping the ball and attempting to pass their way up the pitch, however it was not perfect and too many times they would give the ball away and also find themselves stretched on the break.
But they got into half time on level terms and you felt they had withstood Everton's early bluster and could start to impose themselves in the second half.
These was a change at the break, Adam Lallana had looked decent in the first half, but Russell Martin clearly didn't want to over play him in this one and he was replaced by Mateus Fernandes.
Now Saints had more control and after keeping it tight for the first 15 minutes, Martin made 3 changes to try and win the came, on came Downes, Dibling & Brereton for Ugochukwu, Fraser & Cornet and Saints were now in control, although the visitors were still dangerous on the break. Alex McCarthy having to make one superb save to keep the scores level.
Flynn Downes gave us a bit more control in the centre of the park and it also freed up Tyler Dibling to further show Southampton supporters that he is the latest in the line of potential England players to have come off the conveyor belt.
Dibling showed that he can not only work with the ball, but also without it, when Everton had the ball he worked hard to win it back and when he got the ball he showed how he could take players on and create chances for himself and others, one sublime piece of skill seeing him dance through the Everton defence and only narrowly miss the target.
But as Everton fans grew more disgruntled with their team and manager, with 10 minutes to go you could see which manager felt his team was on the back foot, the boos rang out as Sean Dyche removed an attacking option in Doucoure and replaced him with a defender, whereas Russell Martin brought on Ross Stewart.
But we could not find a winner, however more importantly nor could Everton and we didn't look like conceding in the last 10 minutes .
So to penalties and I don't think many Southampton supporters would have been confident after the effort on Saturday against United.
But we showed that we have players who can take penalties, Brereton Diaz, Dibling, Stewart, Downes, Taylor & Harwood Bellis all despatching their spot kicks with aplomb and then Alex McCarthy atoned for his earlier error by keeping out the 12th kick of the evening to send Saints into the next round, ironically the keeper had gone the wrong way for the previous 5 efforts.
So a good evenings work for Southampton and a psychological blow in the Premier League relegation battle, by showing that his squad has depth, whilst his counterpart Sean Dyche was left moaning that he only had 12 fit players.
This should give us confidence going into the game against Ipswich, several players showed that they are up and ready for the fight, they won't all be able to play, but that shows depth, the youthful Mateus Fernandes can be interchanged by Adam Lallana.
Charlie Taylor showed that he is Premier League proven quality and will surely be in line for a start against Ipswich, Tyler Dibling is fast laying claim to being a nailed on starter, even James Bree got in on the act.
No one is under any illusions of the task ahead of us and that this result will now kick start a 22 game unbeaten run that will take us up to 3rd in the table, but it gives us hope for the first step forward in the League against Ipswich on Saturday.
Russell Martin can have no excuses, as I mentioned earlier in the week, the Jack Stephens issue has been taken out of his hands, he now has to show that he can pick a side on merit, if he does that then we can beat Ipswich and start to win the fight for Premier League safety.