The final say on the final game of the season as Southampton are beaten 2-0 by Manchester City

It doesn’t really matter that Saints have finished on a bit of disappointing note, away from home anyway, this is a campaign that will live long in the memory.

There could be a little regret, just as there was last season that what for so long looked like being an even better year didn’t quite deliver everything it might have done.

In this case it was one point from the final seven away games of the season that did the damage.

But even so, given everything that happened last summer, this has been quite remarkable.

It’s not just the record Premier League era points haul or the seventh placed finish, it’s been the style with which the team has played.

Numbers and statistics fade in the memory, performances and players don’t.

It’s those wonderful memories that Saints have created this season.

Some of the football has been simply wonderful.

Saints have had a freshness and vitality to their performances.

So well drilled and well organised at the back, so comfortable in possession, and then furiously attacking when it was their day. They’ve scored 14 goals across two home matches this season, handed out other beatings, and got results against some of the big guns.

We now wait to see whether it is topped off with European qualification.

Getting in via the qualifiers is far from ideal. No team ideally wants to start their competitive season in July, or potentially face ten extra matches by early December, but if that is the cost of qualification then Saints will take it.

It would have been better had Saints taken matters out of the hands of Arsenal and Aston Villa but that was not to be.

There has been much talk of the next step up for Saints.

Against Manchester City you could see what that actually means, and how big a leap it is.

City are a team full of superstars, assembled at huge expense. To bridge that gap for any side without a massive injection of cash is going to be tough, probably bordering on impossible.

To be totally honest that is not where Saints are as a club.

But that doesn’t mean they cannot strive for this season again, and better.

Perhaps a run at a cup, a run in Europe, maybe pushing towards fifth, which they finished just shy of this time out.

It was a shame they finished the season with a defeat but they were up against a fine team.

After a first 20 minutes that was interesting tactically and for City’s ability to keep the ball, but not for goal mouth action, the match exploded into life on 20 minutes.

Saints managed the game’s first effort on target as Graziano Pelle’s ball found Shane Long. He took a great flick of a touch to skip into the area and was one-on-one with Joe Hart, but his low shot was too near the keeper who saved.

City were spurred into life and went up the other end to attack with David Silva finding Sergio Aguero who fired high and wide of the near post.

Four minutes later they upped the pressure still further with Yaya Toure’s shot from the edge of the area being spilt by Kelvin Davis. Aguero pounced six yards out but the Saints keeper made a brilliant reaction save from point blank range.

There was nothing he could do about City’s goal on 31 minutes though.

City were again patient and considered in their build-up and when Silva played the ball outside to James Milner and he squared to Frank Lampard unmarked on the penalty spot there was only ever one outcome.

Lampard has made a long and illustrious career out of finishing such chances and obliged one more time in his final Premier League match with an unstoppable side footed shot.

City threatened to all but end the game just moments later as Silva put Aguero through one-on-one but Kelvin Davis saved while the stopper was the hero again on his 300th appearance, stopping from his own player, Toby Alderweireld, who desperately hacked away when Aguero was lining up to finish.

Saints did muster one chance in the dying stages of the half as the ball broke to Pelle but he fired well wide.

The second half was a slightly different affair as City looked content to settle with what they had got.

It gave Saints more time on the ball, but they struggled to make serious inroads, a few frustrating offsides not helping their cause.

Long did test Hart on a couple of occasions, forcing the England man to stop both his side footed effort from the edge of the area and a rasping low drive across goal when he had picked up a rare loose City pass.

Possible the best Saints chance fell to Sadio Mane on 72 minutes.

Everybody expected the offside flag to go up as he was picked out by Ryan Bertrand’s left wing cross but it didn’t and Mane tamely headed into the turf.

City didn’t come particularly close to getting another before their late goal, Lampard heading straight at Kelvin Davis and Aguero firing over with their best efforts.

However, two minutes from time they wrapped up the three points.

It had a touch of fortune about it as a deflected shot looped high and found Eliaquim Mangala at the far post and he headed back across goal to Aguero who was alone all of a yard out and headed in.

It was a shame to see the season end on that note, but that does not take away from what has been a marvellous campaign for Saints under Ronald Koeman, and one which has generated much optimism for the future.