News summary
Sunday will not be filed away as one of those games. Having stated the aim of automatic promotion out loud, Saints were miles off the standards they set in the second half of last season.
Look at the arithmetic. Sides going up automatically have averaged seven defeats a season over the past five years, and Southampton begin on minus four.
A selection question sits underneath it too. Playing Leo Scienza at number ten took away his best weapon; Saints looked more like themselves once he shifted wide and Finn Azaz came on.
Elsewhere in the division, Sheffield United face a winding-up hearing brought by their former owner over £35m of unpaid instalments. Insolvency would trigger an EFL investigation and a possible 12-point deduction, and a promotion rival would then be digging themselves out of a similar hole as Saints.
Stoke come to St Mary's on Saturday afternoon. A first home game usually carries less weight than this one now does.
Transfer news
Croatian champions Dinamo Zagreb have reportedly been offered the chance to sign Gavin Bazunu, who is out of contract at the end of the season.
Southampton would keep 30 per cent of any future sale. The Echo has more than one club exploring a move, and an exit soon would suit everyone.
Petar Ratkov has a third suitor. Red Star Belgrade joined the chase on Tuesday.
Belgrade cannot outbid Dinamo Moscow, but home comforts, European qualifiers and a weekly starting shirt are sometimes worth more to a player.
Nobody has convinced Ratkov yet. Lazio want back what they paid Salzburg, and Southampton are not spending the Shea Charles windfall on a fourth striker.
The midfield need is more pressing. Southampton have joined a queue for Manchester United's Dan Gore that also includes Celtic, the Blades and Swansea.
Two loan spells at Rotherham brought Gore one goal and four assists. Eckert has got more out of less before.
Saints Marching opinion
Flynn Downes, Caspar Jander and Cameron Bragg. That is the senior central midfield available against Stoke, once Shea Charles had gone to Fulham in a package worth up to £30m.
The cupboard has been emptying quietly all summer. Watford simply turned a light on it.
Bragg was the one who came out of the afternoon the better. His reverse pass for Cyle Larin is not a ball most senior midfielders even see, never mind attempt.
Two weeks of the window are left, and Southampton still have some sizeable gaps to fill and a few players who need to be moved on.
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