Was this the start of a new era or the ending of the old one, with Ivan Juric sat in the stands, no one was quite sure, but by the end of the game the travelling Saints supporters went home in a happier mood than they have felt for most of the games so far this season.
There were no real surprises in the starting line, except the return of Aaron Ramsdale after his time out with a broken finger, although some would have felt that Cameron Archer should have started.
This was never going to be an easy game, Fulham are a tough side to beat, but it was clear from the start that this was a Southampton team with a different attitude to the one that had collapsed against Spurs 7 days earlier, most of the players might have been the same, but you could see that from now on it is going to be about keeping things tight at the back and pressing hard.
Saints fans will need to be patient though, after the start to this season, it was never going to be as easy as just clicking your fingers and hey presto everything is great again, so this game was always going to be about starting first and foremost with the aim not to concede and then building from there.
Ivan Juric might not have been picking the team and running the game, but you felt that he would have talked to his new team and given them the game plan going forward.
The possession game seems to have gone or at least watered down a little and when it was needed we were not afraid to put our foot through the ball.
For once we were not playing keep ball our 43% possession in this match has to be one of the lowest levels since the start of last season, so the first half was without too much incident.
At half time Tyler Dibling went off and on came Cameron Archer, this seemed a strange change, but you could see that having got through the first 45 minutes all square we were going to try and impose ourselves a little more.
But as I mentioned earlier, this was not going to be an easy task against a big & strong Fulham side who seemed to tower over us, but we had the spirit to roll our sleeves up and fight.
That being the case just before the hour mark off came Joe Aribo and on came Big Les Ugochukwu, who offered a strong presence in the centre of the midfield and looked the part, making you wonder why Russell Martin virtually ignored him.
There were few real chances for either side, although Fulham had the best and it needed a great save from Aaron Ramsdale to keep the sides level.
Saints grew into the game and looked for a late winner with what looked from the away section to be a stone wall penalty, but the referee who throughout the game seemed to give Saints nothing, waved the claims away.
So the main aim from this game was to get through it with something, obviously 3 points was desperately needed, but as mentioned sometimes you can't just turn things around easily, especially when you consider the draconian way Russell Martin imposed his playing style on the team.
But we showed enough in this game to give the hope that we can turn this season around and win a few games, no one is claiming we are a good side, but I don't think we are any worse than many of the teams just above us.
Sadly I think that we have thrown away too many points now and staying up is going to be just too much to be able to do, leaving Martin in place for the previous 6 games at least now looks to be a major mistake by the Saints board.
All we can do now is build for the future and see what happens, but at least if Ivan Juric's first words as Southampton manager claimed, we will show fight and that is something that has been sorely missed at times.
So this game achieved it's first objectives, we kept a clean sheet, we were determined and organised and we had the spirit, sadly though every game we fail to win is a step nearer relegation and a game less to close the gap between us and safety.