It struck me as i sat in a bar in the shadow of Turf Moor after the game on Thursday, talking to the same people who over 40 years ago I'd sat in other bars after other games talking about the same issues that not a lot changes at Southampton FC.
Just about the only good thing that you can say about this game was that we kept the score down, although in truth as bad as we played we could have and should have got back into the game and made it at least nervy for the home side, but poor finishing put paid to that.
I said in the preview that this would be a cauldron and it was and it suddenly turned Burnley into Brazil circa 1970, they seemed to be able to waltz past our players with ease.
Initially we seemed to be able to cope, although it again needed Fraser Forster to be in top form and ironically it took a beautifully curling shot from outside the area to break the deadlock.
Saints were backs to the wall, but you felt that if they got into the break only one down then we could regroup and get back in the game, but we couldn't even do that and conceded on the stroke of half time.
The second half saw us a little more resolute and when we brought on Che Adams and Nathan Redmond on 65 minutes we looked a better balanced side, indeed it almost paid dividends when Redmond put in a great cross for Adams to get on the end of, he did so but hit the ball right at the keeper who made the save.
A little later Adams again had a great chance but took two long to get his shot away and saw his effort blocked.
If either of those had gone in perhaps Saints could have got back in the game.
One thing that was infuriating though was that Burnley seemed to employ a tactic which saw one of their players go down holding his head when corners were cleared, on at least two occasions this happened and the game was stopped for a head injury when Saints had the ball and in a potentially dangerous position.
The referee on both occasions restarted the game with an uncontested dropped ball for the goalkeeper who did not return the ball to our possession, on the spot where the player had gone down rather than where the ball was in play, as is the accepted protocol, this is a new tactic creeping into the game and very cynical.
Hard to stop it happening unless we return to a contested dropped ball.
But we didn't and the thousand Saints fans who made the trip were to be disappointed.
So what is the problem, in short it is too many players at the moment are not performing to the level they did a couple of months ago, Armando Broja is a shadow of the player he was for three months in the winter, Stuart Armstrong is struggling and Mohammed Elyounoussi is annonymous for much of games, a team just can't carry three passengers.
They are not bad players , so why is this happening is the question we must ask.
I think perhaps the change of owner and talk of a clear out in the summer has demotivated some of the squad, Broja is not a bad player, but he is too inexperienced to play his way though a dry spell, but he has still been played whatever, perhaps that does not sit well that a loan player is preferred to those who will still be here next season when he most likely won't.
Ralph Hasenhuttl didn't put out a bad team, but he does seem to be resigned to the fact that there will need to be changes for next season , some like Walcott & Djeneppo now seem to be completely out of the picture, he is definitely trying certain players to see if they are worth keeping, some are responding, some are not.
The truth is though for a team like Saints and you can look at the form of just about every team not in the top six, form is patchy, sometimes adrenalin wins games that you shouldn't, but overall few teams outside of the top 6/7 win 3 games in a row,
The good news is that we still have Salisu to return and he needs to be back in on Sunday, we have rested Tino Livramento, but he will be back.
Ralph has seen the players who are not performing, he saw last night the likes of Nathan Redmond & Che Adams who started on the bench, but did more in 35 minutes than most did in 90, he truly needs to play those who want to play and do put in the effort and leave on the bench those that don't.
On paper everyone who started the game was worthy of doing so, the reality was that some for whatever reason failed to play to the level they can do, that is what needs to be addressed.
I will finish on the playing side banging on about what is the route of the problem, at the back we lack an experienced leader, until we get one, teams like Burnley fighting for their lives will always turn us over.
Some will moan about the fans travelling all that way for a poor performance and how we were short changed, no one from our table in the Burnley bar thought that way, this wasn't our first experience of travelling long distances for poor performances, indeed all of us had travelled further to see worse displays and results.
No one was whinging about the fact that we had travelled so far, it was just what we do, we have done it for 40 years plus, what we saw on Thursday night was nothing different than any other season.
We don't go to games for medals, we go to support our team, it's what defines us and what we do, I will berate the team in the pub afterwards, but I never feel sorry for myself for having travelled so far for so little, long ago I stopped thinking that professional footballers do it for the love of the club.
I look to the future and not to the past, there is a new era dawning, the end of this season is still part of the last era in terms of our resources and strategy, lets just get to the end of it and then see if anything changes in the summer and next season.
So from this perspective it is all about hope and sometimes it is the hope that is the worst thing !