When Finn Azaz beat James Trafford with a late second half rocket, the Southampton fans were in dreamland.
With only 11 minutes remaining of normal time, Southampton were beating the might of Manchester City in an FA Cup semi-final, having held their own throughout.
Unfortunately, any dreams of reaching their first FA Cup final since 1976 were short-lived, as City then kicked into gear, with Jeremy Doku and Nico Gonzalez scoring in quick succession.
Southampton fans packed into Wembley would have been despondent at the final whistle that their beloved team couldn't get over the line.
But, the overwhelming feeling at the close of the game was one of pride, as Tonda Eckert saluted his players, and the superb fan support, in his post-match thoughts.
Eckert's comments after the Cup defeat
Eckert will want to quickly move on from the agony of this late defeat, as his players still have a job to do, in securing promotion to the Premier League.
It would have felt wrong, though, if he didn't take time out to congratulate his troops on such a spirited performance, at the full-time whistle, with the German describing the performance as "excellent."
He said, at the close of the whirlwind loss at Wembley: "“The performance was excellent today.
“These teams make you suffer in moments of the game, whether you want to or not, they’re going to push you down to defend a little bit deeper in some moments of the game.
“I think we’ve done this brilliantly over big, big spells, and you know that down the other end you are always going to get some moments.
“I think we’ve done absolutely everything we could today. I think everyone who was in the stadium saw that we left everything out on the pitch, and then it lives off small moments – these games are decided by small moments.
“Unfortunately they were not on our side towards the very end, but the performance was outstanding, the away support was outstanding, and we are going to need exactly the same for the last games of the season."
Ultimately, the difference between the two teams - separated by a league - was the fine moments in the game, with Southampton rueing their inability to kill off Pep Guardiola and Co.
At the end of the match, while Eckert was a mixture of proud and empty-handed, the Spaniard would've been a relieved figure, as he went out of his way to praise the Saints honestly, for the test his side were handed.
Guardiola's honest praise of Southampton
While Guardiola is a serial winner at this stage in his esteemed managerial career, he doesn't ever come across as too arrogant or cocksure.
He gave Southampton plenty of credit in his post-match thoughts, as he now prepares his players for another trip to Wembley in the FA Cup final.
He honestly opened up at the close of the breathless match, by stating: "Southampton are 20 games unbeaten, so I never thought it would be easy.
"How many times in the second half did Southampton cross halfway? One. And what a goal. Football is unpredictable; sometimes it is nice.
"Sometimes it is, ‘Oh my God, how did this happen? Big credit to the way that Southampton defended and how they played."
Eckert will take a lot away from the defeat, as he managed to tussle admirably with one of the game's greats.
The German will want his hands on some silverware, though, to validate Southampton's superb season even more, with a playoff final hopefully on the agenda soon that sees the Saints right the wrongs of this heartbreaking Wembley defeat.
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