Swansea arrived at St Mary's top of the table and if it hadn't been for the 4 point deduction it would be Saints sitting top of the pile this morning instead of 12th, but it is what it is, but it shows that we are in good shape and promotion contenders.
The four point deduction won't go away, but it doesn't mean that we shouldn't measure our progress this season, not only by our league position now, but how the table would have looked had those points not been deducted.
That is the true measure to compare ourselves in terms of how good we are against our promotion rivals.
On Tuesday night one of those promotion rivals arrived at St Mary's top of the table and left after being very much second best for the majority of the game.
Tonda Eckert made 3 changes from the starting line up at Lincoln, as I predicted in the Preview, Ryan Manning returned at left back to offer attacking options, but the other two changes were less predictable, Tom Fellows came in for Matsuki and perhaps more of a shock Nathan Wood replaced Jack Stephens.
Saints should have taken the lead early doors but Finn Azaz blazed the ball over the bar, however he made amends after just 9 minutes when he took a pass from Flynn Downes in his stride and calmy placed it past the keeper into the corner to put Saints in the driving seat.
Just after the half an hour mark the lead was doubled, James Bree put in a superb cross that Cyle Larin getting in front of his marker steered into the goal and now Saints were clearly in charge.
This was a controlled composure though and this was a rare game where the possession stats were not in our favour, Swansea just shading it on 52%.
The second half seemed to be just a case of keeping it tight and not doing anything stupid, but 7 minutes after the break, Swansea had a lifeline, a cross in the box seemed to be going harmlessly out of play, Vipotnik went to ground after the slightest of touches from James Bree and the referee pointed to the spot, Vipotnik took the kick himself and gave Peretz no chance.
After watching the replay I remain unconvinced by the decision, the home fans ire was further irked when Leo Scienza was shoved to the ground in the box, perhaps it wasn't the biggest of shoves, but if the benchmark of contact was set by the referee at James Bree's level on Viotnik, then this was pretty much nailed on.
Swansea now perked up a little, but we looked a lot more composed than we did against Lincoln, the game was finally put to ben in the 78th minute when Leo Scienza took a pass from Matsuki and scored what is pretty much his trademark goal, cutting in from the left and curling a shot into the keepers left hand corner.
It was just a case now of keeping it tight for the last 12 minutes plus injury time.
Although Saints dominated, it was not a game of chances, both keepers only had 1 shot each to save other than the goals. the majority of the chances were ours, 16 as opposed to 10, but we only manged 4 on target, 3 of which went in, the Swans had just 2.
One pleasing stat given the aerial bombardment we had at Lincoln was that of the 23 aerial duels we won 16 of them.
This win was firmly built in the centre of our midfield, James Ward-Prowse & Flynn Downes are a solid pairing and I would be hard pressed to name a better holding duo in the Championship.
In front of them is Finn Azaz who has taken up where he left off last season, he is the hub that starts attacks and finishes them, it is the little things that don't get noticed that impress me about Azaz, his ability to win the ball, lay it off and then get it back a pass or two later.
It is hard to see where Caspar Jander will fit in this picture when he returns from injury, but what a great problem for Tonda Eckert to have.
Another plus was the substitutions, the first was at just the right time fresh legs with Matsuki replacing fellows on 76 minutes and it paid dividends.
The other 3 were more about running down the clock, Edozie & Mubama on for Larin & Scienza who had both played their part.
The last was more about giving James Ward-Prowse a standing ovation, with Cameron Bragg coming on in the 2nd minute of injury time.
All in all this was a satisfying win that has made people sit up, we would have been top today had it not been for that points deduction, we are the divisions top scorers, we have the best goal difference and we know that we haven't really yet fired on all cylinders.
The only downside is that we are yet to keep a clean sheet this season, last night looked like we would till that inexplicable penalty decision, but the 7 goals we have conceded have all had a sense of being architects of our own doom, the two misplaced passes at Watford, the two free headers at Birmingham & Lincoln.
If we had not conceded just those 4 goals then we would be top today even with the four points deduction !
Of course that is ifs and buts, however it is a nagging doubt and we have to deal with it.
We now have to keep moving forward and moving up the table, Bristol City will arrive in 5th place as their midweek game is next week rather than this, if it had been then they might well of been the 3rd team in a row to walk out here top of the table and hopefully walk off not.
We are starting to look like the side we were last season, in some respects you could say that the 4 point deduction is no worse than our start last season, last term we gained just 6 points from our first 6 games, this season we have 7 out of the opening half dozen.
We are in a better position now than we were a year ago, so from this perspective the 4 point deduction should not impact on our chances of a play off spot at least, however it will make it hard to go up automatically.
But a good night at the office, roll on Saturday.