It was the game nobody wanted. It was a game probably nobody much enjoyed either.

There has been a lot of talk about the magic of the FA Cup in recent days, and whether the old competition’s glamour is somewhat fading these days.

Those hardly souls who braved the cold and turned out at St Mary’s last night were not filled with a spectacle that left them with cup fever.

Saints made it through – just – but in one of the least entertaining games the stadium has ever seen.

It truly was an abysmal game of football.

Norwich boss Alex Neil was quite honest pre-match in his comments. He was focussed on the league, and not much else.

Saints boss Claude Puel was more fulsome in his talk about Saints’ possibilities in the competition, but, even so, that a defensive lapse had meant this replay took place in a packed month was a frustration.

The fact the ground was more than half empty for the game said all you needed to know about the appetite for a match that on paper looked bad, and in reality was no better.

In the end it was a Saints win, but so unconvincing it hardly had the feeling of being a momentum changer in a stuttering period.

The first half really was a particularly turgid affair.

Norwich, depleted for the game by injury, set up with three centre halves, but essentially a flat back five.

That told you all you needed to know. They were aiming to be solid, get men behind the ball, and with the imposing figure of Kyle Lafferty up front, they always had a direct way to move it quickly up top.

Once more at St Mary’s, the emphasis was on Saints to be the aggressors and the ones to make things happen.

They were, as you would expect given Norwich’s stand-off approach, slightly more on top, but, for a team that had effectively named their two big guns in terms of available strikers, not especially dangerous going forward.

That was not helped by the feeling that Puel could have tried to get some movement from his side by playing Jay Rodriguez and Shane Long nearer each other, rather than the former through the middle and the latter hugging the left touchline.

In a half that barely had a chance worthy of the name, the best Saints could manage was a couple of near post shots, one from Josh Sims and another from Rodriguez, both of which were saved with a relative degree of comfort by Michael McGovern.

Saints’ lack of attacking thrust was perhaps best summed up by Jordy Clasie’s excellent right wing cross midway through the half which intersected the Canaries defence in the heart of their own area, but absolutely nobody had taken the gamble of a forward run to meet it.

The second half was fractionally better.

Saints did start to actually create a little more, albeit nothing exceptional until they grabbed the only goal in injury time to at least, mercifully, avoid another half an hour of it.

The list of sort of Saints chances included easy saves for McGovern from Sims and James Ward-Prowse before Long cut inside and zipped a shot narrowly wide.

Rodriguez hooked a shot over McGovern but across the face of the goal before Ward-Prowse whipped a free kick round the outside of the wall but into the side netting.

After Sims lobbed the keeper but also the goal, sub Nathan Redmond’s extra impetus had an effect.

Norwich really looked reluctant to play extra time, but whether Saints could hold things together well enough to get the ball in the net was another question.

Redmond had one shot parried away, and missed the target with another, and Sam McQueen had a shot saved, before Long got a goal which provided relief to all in St Mary’s.

McQueen did superbly to just reach a ball and sweep in a cross from the left by-line.

It looked like it might be another moment of frustration as Long headed at McGovern from point blank range, but the striker reacted quickest to turn home the rebound from a couple of yards out to allow everybody to go home.

The game nobody really wanted will not be one talked about for very long.

Even the result didn’t really feel as uplifting as it might have done.

Puel can argue that he got the job done. A win is a win after all, and in a cup progress is, ultimately, all that matters.

But even allowing for a side with some youth in it, and with plenty of changes, it is still a sign of Saints’ attacking problems that they toiled so long before getting a winning goal against a team there for the taking.

After four Premier League defeats in a row, they need much better when Leicester come to town at the weekend.