Cardiff City have now entered the endgame. A disastrous defeat against relegation rivals Luton Town plunges the Bluebirds deeper into the relegation battle and pressure has ramped right up on manager Omer Riza.
The run of results heading into Tuesday's relegation six-pointer was sub-standard and as such it upped the importance on the game against the Hatters. Defeats against Burnley and Sunderland were viewed as "free hits", but that is based on the assumption that Luton was winnable and the gap to the bottom would be maintained.
For a team which has now won only four times in their last 24 league games - just a shockingly poor eight wins all season - perhaps the confidence in getting that result over Luton was seriously misplaced. Sign up to our daily Cardiff City newsletter here.
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For all of Cardiff's talent - and while there is anger and resentment among supporters right now, there is talent in that squad - they are too soft. They roll over and have their tummies tickled too often. They start too slowly in too many games and fail miserably to see games out. Where is the fight and heart and soul, the foundations on which this club has been built?
Riza has come in for heavy criticism after Tuesday night and that has accumulated over time, but a defeat against Luton was always going to serve as the detonator for undecided fans. Even Riza's most ardent backers have found the recent run of results difficult to defend.
The Bluebirds' boss's reluctance to shoulder enough of the blame has been heavily criticised, too, with Riza having hit out at his players after a string of lacklustre results and performances. Weak away from home and struggling to dominate at Cardiff City Stadium is a heady mix in the relegation-battle cocktail.
Fans have been conflicted about Riza since his appointment and that's natural. An untested head coach at this level and a fan base which has been hurt before by similar appointments such as Steve Morison and Mark Hudson in recent memory will need convincing. But Tuesday night, with boos ringing out both at half time and full time, seemed to see the needle shift seriously quickly in a negative direction and we now seem lightyears away from those wins over Swansea and Derby County in January.
Supporters let rip after the Luton game. Many feel the club must go nuclear now, let Riza leave and get a firefighter in to save them from the drop. Social media, which of course isn't representative of the entire fan base, granted, was lit up by furious Bluebirds fans urging the club to act before it's too late.
Those still left in Riza's corner, admittedly a dwindling number right now, would likely argue that changing things this late in the game will have little impact and the upheaval would cause more uncertainty and throw another problem into the mix by means of finding the right man to steer the ship next.
Riza's appointment was not unanimous. The club waited more than two months before appointing him until the end of the season and when they did, it strangely came after a run of five winless games. It is indicative of the muddled thinking which has landed Cardiff in a third relegation battle in four seasons.
The direction from the top has seen this club slide, year on year, towards relegation, something Mehmet Dalman has previously said would be ruinous to a club the size of Cardiff with its enormous debts. The huge chop in funding in League One doesn't bear thinking about - although it might take up some considerable thinking time soon if Cardiff don't miraculously flip their form on its head.
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It is understood some members of the Bluebirds hierarchy have lost their patience. With the fear of relegation really breathing down their necks, discussions will have been had on how best to proceed, with Ken Choo and Dalman in attendance to watch that punishing defeat at the hands of Luton on Tuesday evening.
The coming hours and days will speak volumes in terms of the next steps, but everyone is in agreeance that this current trend of results and performances cannot continue with time quickly running out.
The board, Riza, the coaching staff and this underperforming group of players must all take responsibility for yet another shambles of a season. Erol Bulut partly, too, of course. Emotions were running high after the game on Tuesday, but on reflection, they will all surely admit they could have done more to have avoided this perilous position, with literally millions on the line in the final nine games.
Crucially, it's still in Cardiff's hands. They are still out of the drop zone, granted by only one point, and have to face the likes of Stoke City and Oxford United, which feel like big games already, while a tough run-in including Sheffield United, West Brom and Norwich City in the final four games looks daunting.
Derby are one point behind and Luton, after Tuesday's triumph, are just two points behind.
Heading into the crunch point of the season they are sitting on just one win in eight. The only hope is that they can find another little streak of results in this nine-game shootout to avoid the unthinkable.
