When even a statement outside Number 10 by the Prime Minister in unparalleled political times is bumped off of BBC One by a third round replay, you know it’s the ‘magic of the FA Cup.’ It just didn’t feel very magic for Saints.

Just a day after her Brexit bill was voted down by an historic margin in the Commons, and hours after her government survived a vote of no confidence, Theresa May suffered possibly the ultimate blow to her credibility She was bumped off of prime time because Saints were playing extra time against Derby County. In a third round replay. Of questionable quality. With neither side playing a first team.

If May reckons she has had some bad results, think how Saints feel after this defeat.

They let a two-goal lead slip against Championship Derby for the second time, and on this occasion they paid the penalty, literally, as they got dumped out of a competition they had the chance to do well in.

You can argue, of course, that the Premier League is their priority given the delicate position they are in in the table, and fewer games, and two free weekends, might aid their cause.

But there are two flaws to that.

The first is that Saints are not a team used to winning matches, and the opportunity to do just that is hard to refuse. A trip to Accrington Stanley in the fourth round did open the door for another potential win and a passage through the competition.

In the short term it was also a physically punishing night.

Ralph Hasenhuttl will have a couple of players back for the visit of Everton at the weekend and did manage to rest one or two for the Derby tie.

But around half the team will have to play again, having gone a full 120 minutes in midweek on the back of a gruelling effort to secure victory at Leicester.

And this at a time when Saints acknowledge that they cannot afford to let momentum slip as they did after the back-to-back victories against Arsenal and Huddersfield.

Though the VAR debate will again secure headlines – like the Carabao Cup penalty shootout win at Leicester it seemed to create as many questions as it answered – and the penalties will be discussed, for Saints this was more of the same old problems rearing their head.

Just as they seemed to have got a balance between defensive security and attacking prowess right, they blew it again.

To let another lead slip was worrying, and just proved once more that, despite promising matches in isolation, nothing can be taken for granted in what is now a Premier League only five month run-in.