Five minutes before kick-off, the lights went down at St Mary's, drums began to beat, flames leapt into the air and the crowd began to yell like banshees
It felt less like the build-up to a football match and more like the preamble to a pagan sacrifice
By the end of a game that was a dramatic exercise in incompetence between two struggling teams, it was anybody's guess whether Southampton boss Mark Hughes or Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho would find himself strapped to the altar first
It has been reported that Southampton, who have not won a match since September 1, have been talking to ex-Swansea and Leicester manager Paulo Sousa about taking over from Hughes
Maybe United should start talking to somebody, too. If they haven't already. Because under Mourinho, they are going nowhere fast
PLAYER RATINGS AND LIVE PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE SOUTHAMPTON: McCarthy 5 – Yoshida 5
5, Vestergaard 6, Stephens 6 – Valery 6, Hojbjerg 5, Lemina 7 (Davis 90, 5), Armstrong 6, Soares 6 – Redmond 6
5, Obafemi 7 (Gabbiadini 61, 5) Subs not used: Gunn, Hoedt, Ward-Prowse, Romeu, AustinGoals: Armstrong (13), Cedric (20)Booked: Hojbjerg, Lemina, Vestergaard, ArmstrongUNITED: De Gea 6 – Young 5, McTominay 5, Jones 5, Shaw 5 (Dalot 72, 5) – Herrera 6, Matic 5, Fellaini 5, Pogba 6 – Rashford 6
5 (Martial 77, 6), Lukaku 6( Lingard 86, 5)Subs not used: Romero, Rojo, Fred, MataGoals: Lukaku (33), Herrera (39)Booked: Rashford, Fellaini, Pogba, YoungReferee: K Friend 7Attendance: 30,187 Season at a glance Live tables Fixtures Scores Premier League Premier League Championship League One League Two Scottish Premiership Scottish Div 1 Scottish Div 2 Scottish Div 3 Ligue 1 Serie A La Liga Bundesliga More tables More fixtures More scores For more stats and maps visit Sportmail's brilliant Match Zone
That United came back from 2-0 down in this helter-skelter of a match does them credit
That they found themselves in that position in the first place against a team deep in relegation trouble provides a savage commentary on the limp mess of a side they have become
And that they failed to finish off a side as fragile as Southampton when they had brought the scores equal before half time was an indictment of quite how feeble they now are
United are 16 points behind Manchester City at the top of the table, closer to the bottom than the summit
Whether Hughes survives the weekend is open to question. The suggestion was that unless Southampton won this game, his eight months at St Mary's would be brought to an end
In his favour, his side showed great hunger and bravery against the odds and his bold decision to give league debuts to Michael Obafemi and Yan Valery nearly paid off
You can see by the manner of the performance what the players have given. Everyone is fully engaged and trying to get this club where they want to be
Southampton's performance at least sowed some optimism amongst the home fans. Hughes deserves the chance to build on it
As for Mourinho, well, he staggers on, mired in bitterness and resentment and the ordinariness of mid-table
Ten days ago, he predicted that United would mount a charge towards the top four
They have responded by drawing with Crystal Palace and Southampton.'We want to be smelling those positions,' Mourinho said of the Champions League spots
They might be nine points shy of them by Sunday evening and the only thing smelling at the moment is his management
Sadly for United's magnificent travelling support, it is stinking the place out. There is no sense that the team is improving
If anything, the opposite is the case. Their players give glimpses of their talent but they are fleeting
Pogba is capable of a breathtaking turn and pass one minute and a moment of abject carelessness the next
The pattern is repeated throughout the side. They are strangers to consistency except in their inconsistency
'I hope this is not taken the wrong way, but we needed more mad dogs,' Mourinho said after the game
'With all the respect for dogs, because I love them and I think they are better than many men
With all respect it is a football expression that is not mine, it is from someone much more older than me
It means the people who are aggressive on the ball, fight hard to recover the ball
'I would say Marcus Rashford was a mad dog until he was, very, very tired but at the time we don't have many people with that spirit so nothing to do with the system
We lost so many balls in midfield. Simplicity is genius, and they keep going to complicated football
'The game was a study in chaos from the opening exchanges. Only two minutes had gone when Southampton passed the ball back to McCarthy, who missed his kick completely as he tried to clear it
Rashford collected the ball on the byline but backheeled it when a precise pass would have found Herrera and given him a tap in
If Mourinho had turned to the crowd and shaken his head again, as he did when Rashford missed a chance against Young Boys in the Champions League last week, no one would have blamed him
The backheel didn't work but the ball squirted to Lukaku instead. He took a touch to control it, which was long enough to allow McCarthy to smother his shot
The ball bounced clear. Southampton made a hash of clearing it. United could not capitalise and eventually the ball was hacked away
The circus was in town.United's defence looked similarly terrified. Mourinho, deprived of a raft of central defenders through injury, felt he had no choice but to play holding midfielders Scott McTominay and Nemanja Matic alongside Phil Jones in a makeshift back three
McTominay and Jones looked terrified of the pace of Obafemi and his foil, Nathan Redmond
Nor were they helped by Pogba's willingness to give the ball away at will.The defences were so jittery it was a surprise it took either team 13 minutes to score but it was Southampton who capitalised first
Redmond dribbled around a series of half-hearted United challenges and found Obafemi
He bamboozled a couple of defenders, too, and spread the ball wide to Stuart Armstrong
Armstrong was fresh from scoring twice against Fulham last week and he drilled a blistering shot across De Gea and into the far corner with the certainty of a man whose confidence is high
On the touchline, Hughes saw a glimpse of salvation. Seven minutes later, Southampton went further ahead
Lemina was brought down by Rashford on the edge of the area, which earned the United forward a yellow card
Cedric took it a curled a perfect free kick over the wall and beyond the despairing dive of De Gea
St Mary's has been starved of anything as dramatic as this all season and in those heady minutes, it felt as if they were turning a corner
Hughes' faith in youth was paying off. Maybe this was the start of a brave new world and a move up the table
That dream lasted for eight minutes. Rashford had had a miserable half an hour but suddenly he burst into life
He rode his luck to control a through ball from Pogba and squared the ball to Lukaku, who had been ignored by Southampton's defence
Lukaku took his time and lashed his shot past McCarthy.Lukaku's strike ended a run of 12 games and 981 minutes – and a whole lot of cruel jokes - without a goal for United in all competitions since scoring against Watford in September
Southampton's fragile confidence collapsed completely. Six minutes after their first goal, United equalised
Rashford was the creator again, dribbling to the byline and pulling the ball back to Herrera
The cross was slightly behind the Spaniard but he flicked it goalwards and it eluded McCarthy and nestled in the corner of the net
Fellaini missed a chance to put United ahead when he directed a free header wide from a Young free kick five minutes after the interval but the teams spent most of the second half becalmed
Southampton had been desperately vulnerable and it was another indictment of this United team that they could not finish them off
In fact, it was a moment of carelessness from Pogba with ten minutes to go that nearly led to Southampton taking the lead
Pogba dallied on the ball in midfield and then seemed to fall over it, passing it straight to Redmond
Redmond took a couple of steps and then unleashed a shot from 35 yards that De Gea had to push over the bar
There was still time for a moment of comedy. A shot from Redmond was blocked and Lukaku chased it down as it ran towards the touchline
He tried to control it but trod on it instead and fell over in a heap. Play had to be stopped while he received treated
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