THE whistles that echoed around St Mary's during three agonising minutes of injury time on Saturday could probably have been heard all the way to White Hart Lane.

Indeed, the subsequent sighs of relief that swept Southampton at the final whistle were strong enough to send a tidal wave down The Solent.

Saints had three utterly valuable points and rarely has St Mary's provided more joyous scenes.

The ending was nervous, nail-biting and almost unbearable.

With Palace also in good form and some even more difficult fixtures to follow, a win was absolutely crucial on Saturday.

Harry Redknapp knew it, the supporters knew it and so did the players.

And having been mugged from a match-winning position three times already this season against Arsenal, Middlesbrough and Everton, it was inevitable that things would get a little tense in the dying seconds.

But for a full 42 minutes? Well, yes.

As from the moment Nigel Quashie put Saints ahead in the 51st minute until referee Peter Walton put everyone out of their misery, the eyes of every fan were on the clock - praying for it to count-down.

Saints tried to keep playing and almost went 2-0 ahead through Peter Crouch, but you sensed it was exactly the same feeling for the players.

Indeed, the final ten minutes felt like an entire match in itself as Jermain Defoe, Freddie Kanoute and Robbie Keane all tried to unlock the door.

Mistakes began to creep in as Saints struggled to keep possession and it was real backs to the wall stuff.

Even Jamie Redknapp - always such a calming influence - could feel the tension.

"It's a horrible feeling, you can't underestimate that feeling of holding on," he said. You are looking at the clock and you are thinking 'come-on please'. You are just begging it. You are thinking to yourself 'come-on, another five minutes of effort'.

"When you equate that into 90 minutes, it's such a small amount of time, but when you start to get desperate you worry it's not going to happen, but it did."

The frantic finale was, of course, entirely understandable given what this victory meant and what has gone before this season. Had Tottenham equalised, you dread to think what it might have done to the team's confidence. As it was, the result and performance should provide a massive psychological boost.

New additions Redknapp, Henri Camara, Nigel Quashie and Olivier Bernard are all playing extremely well, while the likes of Graeme Le Saux, Paul Smith and Crouch have been absolutely outstanding in recent weeks.

You sense there is easily enough quality to get into winning positions throughout the remainder of the season, but the key to survival could yet be showing a little more composure and solidity when that happens.

Saints had to ride their luck somewhat, but just about deserved the win and this result should bring a fresh wave of belief.

It was a big hurdle to keep a lead for so long against such quality strikers, and hopefully that ability to close out matches can now become a habit.