The losing streak was halted and it was Saints for once that were scoring in the first minute and that gave them the foundation and confidence to build on that and although they had to dig in, it was a pleasing victory.
There were again a few raised eyebrows an hour before the game when the line ups came out, the changes were rung, Stuart Armstrong, Kamaldeen Sulemana & Charly Alcatraz were restored to the starting line up and out went Ryan Fraser, Mason Holgate, Shea Charles and Che Adams, it was no surprise that Ryan Manning was back in at left back.
But would this line up gel was the big question and the confidence wasn't high amongst those I was with.
But before many had taken their seats Saints were ahead, a superb through ball from Kyle Walker Peters put Adam Armstrong through and although he was wide and it was a tight angle he dinked the ball home to send St Mary's wild and shocked.
The game settled down and it was clear that it was a different Saints side than most of the last few weeks, we seemed to be less frantic in pushing forward, more disciplined and it was paying dividends.
For the next half hour Leeds were not making it easy and Gavin Bazunu had to pull off a smart save to keep the scores level but then came the five minutes that swung the game, Sulemana laid a simple but effective pull back to Will Smallbone who slotted home in off the post to leave the keeper stranded.
Leeds were rocked but they weren't given much time to settle down and again it was Sulemana the provider and he found Adam Armstrong who took the ball tried to go across the defender, checked back and made himself space and slotted home from a position similar to his first.
So at the half hour mark the game was finely balanced, but on 35 minutes it had firmly swung in Southampton's favour.
At half time the Saints supporters seemed to be shocked at what they had witnessed, surely it was now a lead that even Saints could not throw away, but there was still a nagging doubt that they could and the older fans were talking of a similar game back in 2005 when a 3-0 half time lead was still in place with 70 minutes gone, but by the 90th it was a 4-3 defeat.
Leeds of course now had no choice to go for it and in the 58th minute the nerves started to jangle when Leeds pulled one back, would Saints stay strong or would they collapse as they did at Sunderland and to a lesser extent Middlesbrough.
The answer was that we stayed disciplined, we kept our shape and although at times we played a little too much tippy tappy football, we did temper that with a new willingness to clear the ball when it was needed.
At times it felt like we were playing against the referee as well, although there was barely a bad foul in the game, we still picked up four yellow cards with Leeds picking up just one.
The ref just seemed keen to show us a card and then a few minutes later when Leeds committed a similar foul, he might have given the free kick, there was not card shown.
Russell Martin made a change on the hour mark with Sulemana departing and Ryan Fraser coming on, then a couple of good changes with 20 minutes to go, taking off Alcatraz & Smallbone and adding fresh legs with Shea Charles and Che Adams entering the fray.
The last changes with 5 minutes to go saw both Armstrong's depart and Joe Aribo & James Bree come on, but he appeared to be playing as a winger and not as a defender, that was a strange one.
But hang on Saints did and on reflection it was a lot more comfortable that it felt right up to the final whistle.
Russell Martin and his team went a long way in this game to showing their critics that things are not as doom & gloom as has been claimed, Leeds were a team on a roll, they were looking to finish the day in the top six and look towards chasing down the leaders, they ended it on exactly the same points tally as Saints.
This highlights that we are still in the promotion frame, despite the four straight defeats, we are only 3 points off the play off spots, yes the 8 point gap between us and Leicester in 2nd might be big, but it is one step at a time, and our first goal is to be in that top six, something that could be achievable in the next week with two winnable games coming up.
Overall though this was a good display, personally I don't think the standard in this division is that high, Leeds are one of the better teams yet we beat them with an amount of ease, we showed that we can keep it tight at the back and we can create and score goals.
Some of those under fire in the squad put in a shift, Sulemana was named as man of the match and true his two assists showed that he made a contribution, but for me it was either Kyle Walker Peters, who was one player who seemed to be go past opponents with ease and create chances as well as defend, or Adam Armstrong who never stopped running and working and took his two goals very well and is now joint top scorer in the division.
But there were others who deserved a mention, Gavin Bazunu and his back four were strong, kept things tight, they were not scared to play the ball and the possession football game was still there, but they were also willing to clear it when they had to. Jan Bednarek especially was a big part in keeping the shape of the back line.
Things are not completely smooth, there are still things to iron out, but I think that we have one of the best squads in the Championship we just need to show it more often,
The critics pointed out our early good form was against teams that will not feature in the promotion race and that we struggled to beat them, but this was victory against one of the promotion favourites and a team that was in form arriving at St Mary's.
Saturday's game was about proving a few people wrong in their assessment that we were heading for the bottom not the top, true one win doesn't make all things great again, but it is a start and evidence that we can beat the better teams in this division.
But it all means nothing unless we build on it, we have to go on winning runs and keep going on winning runs.
This win was one to enjoy and savour, there will be other games not so enjoyable and time then to lambast the manager and the team, but if we are going to criticise we also have to give credit where credit is due.