T he inquest into Wales’s humbling by Armenia began in earnest on Saturday morning, a few hours before an afternoon flight to Samsun, the Turkish city on the Black Sea where suddenly it all feels rather make or break when it comes to qualifying for Euro 2024.
The grave mood in the stands at full-time in Cardiff, as the remnants of a sold-out crowd wondered whether they had inadvertently been teleported back to the bruising days when Wales were nestled below Guatemala and Guyana in the Fifa rankings, married with what is now a bleak forecast.
In recent years Wales have never had it so good, but Friday provided an unwanted and brutal throwback to more testing times.
The nation has simply, owing to their own unprecedented success, come to expect much better. The last time Wales conceded more than three goals in a competitive home game a 17-year-old left-back by the name of Gareth Bale registered his first of 41 goals for his country, a stunning free-kick in a 5-1 defeat by Slovakia.