With the superb transfer dealings from Strachan and Lowe, Saints fans went into the game full of optimism. Sitting seventh in the table with only one defeat at St. Mary's were clearer signs that the club were moving in the right direction.
However, Manchester United have also been in great form. Their passing, awareness and movement in the end was a class above that of Saints when required. The efficient way in which they took the lead with their first chance on goal showed the quality they have through the side.
Enough about United. Saints have a lot of positives to take out of the game along with the same couple of negatives I always write about.
Within the first ten minutes, Fernandes had show his trickery to put a shot over the bar, while Anders Svensson had hit the side netting. Svensson, getting a game in place of Delap, impressed with his workrate and showed some of the skills we saw at the World Cup. Beside him, Matt Oakley was industrious and kept the Saints team moving forward.
In addition, Michael Svensson looked a real threat going up field. He had a tough chance from a header but couldn't put it on target. With the return of Lundekvam our defence looked very solid.
Unfortunately, not even the best defences can prevent a really well worked goal. Silvestre hit a huge seventy yard pass out to Gary Neville. The England international then put the ball into the box for van Nistelrooy to latch on to and United had the lead.
Saints had a penalty claim a minute later, and Tessem got in ahead of the poor O'Shea to almost chip an embarrassed Bartez from twenty five yards out.
It looked as though Saints could have pulled themselves back to level terms. Which was exactly when United got their second. Passes from Solskjaer and Beckham carved apart the Saints defence and Ryan Giggs converted at the second attempt.
To have had much of the attacking play and yet be two goals down was clearly hard to take for Saints.
In fact, United could have had a third when van Nistelrooy only had Niemi to beat. The Finnish international got a touch to the ball to prevent the striker from finishing.
The key moment for Saints came on thirty four minutes when Tessem was clearly fouled by Keane. The referee chose not to give it much to the disgust of nearly everyone in the ground.
Saints pressed on and worked hard to get back into the match. Beattie got past O'Shea only for Bartez to be quick off his line and Michael Svensson got up to head ahead of Bartez but it goes out for a corner.
That was to be Bartez's last contribution to the game and he was taken off with a thigh injury. Beattie's shot from the eventual corner went over.
Saints last chance of the half fell to Jo Tessem who headed the ball wide of the upright. I still shake my head at the thought of Tessem getting regular games up front. He has a great determination and work rate. But he's too much like Beattie with the noticeable exceptions of not being as skilful or anywhere near as clinical in front of goal.
With Brett Ormerod struggling to make the grade in the top division, I can only pray for the swift return of the injured Marians Pahars.
The second half started with a feeble decision to book Benali. Saints continued to enjoy large periods of possession, but the longer the game went on the less likely they looked to score.
In order to add an extra attacking edge up front, Strachan brought on Kevin Davies for Jo Tessem. Davies has been told he will not be retained at the end of the season although there's still a chance he could change the club's mind. Unfortunately he made very little difference today.
Manchester United were quite content to soak up Saints pressure, which considering the lack of a real threat today, was done fairly comfortably.
United were always a potential threat on the break and van Nistelrooy was presented with another one on one situation with Niemi. Once again the Finnish 'keeper rescued Saints but, like Bartez before him, was taken off injured.
Niemi has been a key figure for Saints this year but early reports suggest that his knee is just bruised.
In the end, Saints just didn't have enough going forward to put United on the back foot. They were punished by some superb counter attacks and matched United in nearly every other area.
Saints (4-4-2): Niemi (Jones); Benali, M Svensson, Lundekvam, Telfer; Marsden, Oakley, A Svensson, Fernandes; Beattie, Tessem (Davies)
Subs: Ormerod, Williams, Arias