Finally some slight relief for Ange Postecoglou when his party possibly sent the worst team in the Premier League history.
But the Aussie will know that it will have done little to change the thoughts of fans who accused him of the worst Spurs Prem Boss ever.
No, the only way to win those doubters is to go all the way in the Europa League.
And even then some are already steadfast in believing that he is the wrong man for the job.
Yet this comfortable victory, thanks to a Brennan Johnson Double, was very welcome for the oppressed Gaffer – and confirmed Southampton's relegation to the championship.
The Zuidpe backs became the fastest Prem-Team that went down because they still have seven games to go.
That is one more than the notorious Derby side of 2007-08-Wiens Record 11-point Haul Saints are still two shy to defeat-remove when they received their 'R' status, as well as Huddersfield in 2018-19.
With that in mind there was little to be gained for up-aginst-it postecoglou here.
Even a repeat of December's 5-0 in St. Mary's – who saw Russell Martin about an hour after full -time, would hardly have shifted the dial.
However, there was everything to lose, because if his party had ashamed, they would have lost at home for the three sides that were all set for the drop this season, because they were overcome on their own turf by Leicester and Ipswich.
Fans would have called his head before the Crunch Quarte final first stage on Thursday against Eintracht Frankfurt.
Fortunately that was avoided.
But the 59-year-old stays just as much in the mud as he was before this game thanks to a gloomy league campaign with 16 defeats that had fallen as low as 16th before this game.
They are now until the 13th, but it will do little to suppress the smoking frustration among supporters, of whom a thousand participated in another protest against chairman Daniel Levy and ownership outside the ground before the game.
It took only 20 seconds before the South Stand started singing “We want to go out”.
The atmosphere was strange; Creepy quiet, almost like a pre-season friendly.
Things felt like they could become toxic at any time, given the anger to the board and the week – and the season, really – had postecoglou.
The oppressed Aussie seemed to mock his own supporters by covering his ear during the 1-0 defeat on Thursday at Chelsea, although he denied that he meant it as an excitement.
Had Kamaldeen Sulemana had a cross of Spurs -target Tyler Dibbling got home for 12 minutes, the sound of the anger was perhaps deafening.
But instead, the effort of the Ghanaian pole was made through a Pedro Porro deflection and the hosts survived.
And within a minute Spurs were ahead of Johnson's first.
Ange Ball seems to have disappeared most of this gloomy season, but this goal was a great move, albeit against poor quality.
Cristian Romero, who had previously seen a powerful header, played a long ball to James Maddison.
The man from England laid it wide to Captain Son Heung-Min, who fed the overlapping Djed Spence to set up Johnson for his tenth competition goal of the season.
Then came the first of the VAR checks, which eventually ruled that an offside-looking Dominic Solanke did not interfere with the game.
Saints fans reacted with self-removing hymns of 'Championship again, Ole Ole' while preparing themselves for relegation.
Ramsdale was the only reason that this game was not over before, because he bravely took a target-bound Romero head ball in the face.
It kept him on the ground for quite some time and has received a treatment for some time -but nothing exceeds as long as the VAR control that eventually denied Lucas Bergvall from a first Premier League goal shortly thereafter.
The Swede, 19, was free to celebrate smartly in a Romero-Knock-down.
But then a delay of almost five minutes finally saw defender Romero to have been the wing of a mosquito and it was written off.
Postecoglou, who promised on Friday not to celebrate goals for fear that they were abolished by Stockley Park, pretended to be a coin and rock, paper, scissors, scissors during the endless long waiting time for a decision.
It was as if it wanted to say that any call Varie would also have been conceived, happiness.
Fortunately for the Celtic Treble winner, it didn't take long before his side went 2-0, this time really, when Johnson Slim made a Maddison header home.
The second half felt like a training ground exercise when the teams played time with little danger to the score.
It felt very much like a whimmer for Saints to continue, despite the 90th minute goal of Mateus Fernandes, the goals of traces under some late pressure.
And it gave supporters no extra confidence that the target of Ivan Juric will be achieved for the team of avoiding the worst Premier League team ever – by defeating Derby's pathetic count.
Juric may be gone before the season is off, especially after Mathys Tel's last fine has undoubtedly set the result.
Whether Postecoglou suffers the same fate is still to be seen, but nothing that can be seen here would have influenced that decision anyway.
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