Nigel Adkins felt he got more than just another game out of the FA Cup tie at Millwall.
Saints and Millwall will replay at St. Mary's following a 1-1 draw at The Den a game which the visitors took the lead in through Rickie Lambert's first half header, and the two teams will have to do battle again for a place in the fifth round thanks to Darius Henderson's late leveller.
The gaffer reflected that on the balance of play it was probably a fair scoreline, but was more pleased with the way his players came through the contest.
"I thought it was a good cup tie and a draw was probably a good result," he told Saints Player.
"When you look at it we conceded a late goal, but there were waves of pressure coming in from Millwall and that was what made it a good cup tie.
"I thought Rickie Lambert scored a fantastic goal having been out for three games. It was a beautiful pass from Ben Reeves, a player in our development squad who got a start.
"There was a beautiful pass with an overlapping run from Dan Harding and a great run from Rickie Lambert to wait for the space to open and run across the near post area and head the ball in.
"Massive positives for us - we've got Lee Barnard, who's been out for a hell of a long time, he's got an hour. Jason Puncheon, who rejoined us got a great reception from the supporters and worked very hard for 75 minutes before he was replaced by young Luke Shaw, a 16-year-old from our youth team.
"He's another player we've given an opportunity in the FA Cup. In the previous round James Ward-Prowse scored and Jack Stephens got on the pitch.
"Daniel Fox played centre half alongside Aaron Martin, so we had a left back in there, and they've had to deal with the threat of Henderson who is a good player and Aaron Martin, it was a great learning experience for him and he had a good game.
"There's lots of positives for us to take from this game. We've got players who have been out injured for a long time now who are close to fitness and when you look at the squad of players that we've got, we've got to look at 20 odd league games plus the cup games all played in three months.
"We've got a good squad of players that are all looking forward to dealing with the challenge that is front of us."
Nevertheless, Saints will be in the hat for the fifth round, and Adkins will continue to make plans for that alongside a busy looking league programme.
"It is what it is - another great game for us. Both teams are in that hat for the draw, which is pleasing for both clubs, and we look forward to the replay.
"If you put the pecking order because of where we are in the Championship now, we have a great opportunity because of all the hard work that has gone on to be in the race to be in the Premier League.
"But the history of the FA Cup is there for all to see and Southampton have won it previously and been to a Cup final not so long ago.
"You're in it, you dream about the FA Cup and you want to win every game."
The hosting of Cardiff in the Championship on Tuesday is next on the agenda though for his side as the final three months of the season gets underway.
"We've got 20 games of the league campaign in three months. There is a lot of football to played Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, Tuesday and the squad that's got the strongest squad to deal with injuries and the physicality you are going to need to perform at the level required every three days is going to be the team that has an opportunity to be successful.
"Because we've got three months left to go the best way to look at it, and this is how we've talked about it at Southampton in the dressing room with the players, the strategy is a simple one - take one game at a time.
"We're going to focus all our efforts and our preparation to win that game, during the game do everything we can to win it, analyse, do a debrief, put that game to bed and then all our focus and energy goes into one more game."
