Southampton 3 Portsmouth 0: Southampton climbed to fourth in time for Christmas, unwrapping inevitable Champions League references.
But Gordon Strachan's view would not be skewed by the derby status of his side's biggest league win of the season nor the lofty league position it presented.
"More than winning a derby, for a middle-of-the-league club to pick up nine points from three games is manna from heaven," said Strachan. "And let's not kid ourselves we are a middle-of-the-league club. If come April we are still in this position it will be a different thing, but not now."
Strachan's festive joy, though, is his Portsmouth counterpart's anguish. Pompey remain in the relegation zone and a Leeds win tonight would put them second bottom.
"We'll train Christmas Day. I don't give a shit about Christmas, I'm going to be the most miserable person you have ever seen in your whole life," said Harry Redknapp. "I swear to God my wife's Christmas ain't worth bothering about."
Redknapp's resources have been stretched in recent weeks. Suspensions to Arjan De Zeeuw, Patrik Berger and Steve Stone compounded the impact of injuries to four others who might have expected to start. Nonetheless, Redknapp boldly dropped Boris Zivkovic and Yakubu Ayegbeni from the side that had lost to Everton the week before, handing a first appearance for 15 months to 24-year-old Richard Hughes.
Portsmouth, who have not scored away since September, employed a stringently defensive formation. Redknapp's circumspection was well placed. Portsmouth soaked up much of the pressure and it took 10 minutes for the first meaningful effort of the match, a Matthew Taylor shot from 30 yards that skipped just wide of Antti Niemi's post.
Shortly afterwards Southampton's players were crowding referee Jeff Winter to plead for a penalty after Michael Svensson went down under a challenge from Hayden Foxe. To award a spot-kick would have been harsh, but the referee's attempts not to overreact to situations were occasionally overplayed and he was perhaps fortunate the players' treatment of each other did not turn sour. Clearly Winter did not wish to show his cards early on but Sebastien Schemmel's clumsy lunge on David Prutton, which followed a raw early challenge from Tim Sherwood on Chris Marsden, merited a caution.
Jason Dodd's pinpoint deliveries from a succession of free-kicks were ill-used, but that changed in the 34th minute. It was his corner then that arced towards the net, though Schemmel's presence at the far post appeared to do more to divert it in than to keep out the Southampton captain's first goal since October 2000.
The goal was hard on Pompey, but once the home side had opened a first-half lead the visitors' formation served only to stifle their own ambitions.
Redknapp eventually changed things, bringing on Ayegbeni to provide a three-pronged attack, allowing Alexei Smertin to carve out a chance that had Niemi scrambling.
But the game was lost by then. Marian Pahars had driven at the Portsmouth defence from 40 yards out, twisting before whipping a ferocious shot high into Harald Wapenaar's net.
James Beattie's first shot on goal came in injury-time, with a free-kick that zipped past the left upright. Within seconds he had scored. Kevin Phillips dragged the ball back from the byline to Dodd, whose cross found Beattie's head for the third.
"You're going down," sang Saints fans. Redknapp will not be alone in suffering this Christmas. The fans, already hurt by the 2-0 League Cup defeat to Southampton less than three weeks ago, share his torment.
