When you have been made weary, both mentally and physically, by way of a fruitless journey into the heart of a cruel Russian winter, you are possibly due a smattering of good fortune.
As a final whistle which, in truth, could not have come a moment too soon sounded, the players of Leeds United embraced like drunken guests at a favoured relative's wedding.
They were smiling, too, and no wonder, for here was the victory pulled from nowhere, the win which adds worthy credence to the tired theory that teams of pedigree tend to come out on top even when they actually have no right so to do.
An adverse reaction to last week's tortuous round-trip to Moscow was, perhaps, to be expected, and an adverse reaction Elland Road duly witnessed.
Leeds were poor, exceedingly poor at times, but by virtue of a Michael Bridges' goal deep into stoppage time they sneaked home to move two points clear of Manchester United at the top of the Premiership.
In order to save time, the Southampton manager, David Jones, should be brought to the Football Association headquarters at Lancaster Gate this morning for a bout of ritual legslapping.
After seeing his defender Patrick Colleter dismissed for two bookable offences, and three more of his players cautioned for a variety of trivial misdemeanours, Jones launched a furious assault on referee Rob Harris.
"People say referees are not consistent but for me they are consistently bad," he said. "If the assessors mark him anything other than minus 10 then something is wrong. I wouldn't want him to referee a Sunday league game - if he did we'd end up with only two players on either side."
For a team of such relative immaturity Leeds do display an extraordinarily high level of patience, a sadly under-valued commodity in these days of young-turk footballers.
While it would be unfair to suggest that Southampton's game plan embraced nothing more ambitious than resolute defence, they were always at their most comfortable when bunched up on the perimeter of their penalty area.
Little went right for Leeds in the final third of the pitch and long, long before the interval they had logged a catalogue of squandered opportunities.
Southampton's counter-attacks were infrequent but they actually enjoyed the better openings in what was a relentlessly tedious first half.
Leeds' problem was one of precision - or rather the lack of it. The loss of David Batty to a leg injury after just 30 minutes in no way helped their cause, but it was the inability of men like Stephen McPhail and Lee Bowyer to shoulder additional responsibility which will possibly concern manager David O'Leary.
Referee Harris was wetting his lips in readiness for one final blast on his whistle when Bridges rifled home a delicious volley from 20 yards.
It was probably a little more than Leeds deserved but, even so, you can but admire their spirit.
LEEDS: Martyn, Kelly, Woodgate, Mills, Harte, Bowyer, Batty (Bakke 31), McPhail, Kewell, Smith (Huckerby 63), Bridges. Subs Not Used: Haaland, Hiden, Robinson. Booked: Bakke, Bowyer. Goals: Bridges 90.
SOUTHAMPTON: Jones, Tessem, Lundekvam, Richards, Colleter, Ripley, Soltvedt, Hughes (Beattie 77), Oakley, Kachloul, Pahars (Dodd 89). Subs Not Used: Le Tissier, Boa Morte, Moss. Sent Off: Colleter (88). Booked: Kachloul, Pahars, Colleter, Hughes.
Referee: R Harris (Oxford).
