Complicated mathematics and a miracle notwithstanding, Dudley Kingswinford, after a five-year battle against the odds, have lost their National League status.
Last week's result against Blaydon was a defeat too far.
And so, in the way of modern sport, it is time for a backroom upheaval. Questions must be asked and the finger is poised to point.
If Doug Ellis was a rugby man and had anything to do with this once-sturdy club, the first reaction would be: sack the manager.
Excuse the manager's mirth. Gordon Bannatyne is Dudley's director of rugby, which equates with manager. He has been, by various definitions, for the last 13 years. And DK can't sack him because he's quitting.
Walking away from his fat salary and company car!
Bannatyne's remuneration, actually, for the hours he has put in on the club's behalf is a ticket for one of the internationals, preferably one of Scotland's. He is one of a dying breed who serve the game for the old-fashioned reasons and quite a few of these relics are to be found at Heathbrook.
Last Sunday morning, the day after that shattering home defeat by Blaydon, a dozen of the club's first-team squad turned up at the ground to scratch around for stones and objects that might have been lying on a new playing area that is being developed.
Twelve of the first-team squad and 200 minis and juniors and as a statement on the health of the game and respect for its values, this took some beating. "There are core principles here that we could never compromise," said Bannatyne who is now looking for another job in the club, perhaps pitch marker or shirt collector - still cherished occupations at real clubs.
But there is one Dudley tradition that is to end. The club hope to hand Bannatyne's role to an outsider. They are looking for a player/manager/coach.
Dale Smallman, the head coach, will keep his hand in but will move aside for what the bigger clubs might call a capture. They are looking for a man who has had, say, First Division experience, who has a couple of years left as a player and who will take over the playing affairs. "We're looking for someone who can cut his teeth on player management," said Bannatyne.
"This is a departure for us but it's fairly obvious that we need fresh ideas, we need someone who can move us forward. We have to realise that in the modern game, we have to move with the times."
The loss of their Third Division status means the loss of a #15,000 Rugby Football Union hand-out. Our leaders' generosity only stretches to #4,000 a team in Midlands One but this is not a crippling reduction.
Dudley will no longer have to make expensive journeys to English rugby's northern outposts every other week. And at any event, unlike scores of clubs in this country, they have never stared at penury.
They have only ever spent such money as they had and could even ride the loss of the thousands of pounds that a member of their bar staff relieved them of.
The problem that might confront Dudley as they attempt to shoot straight back into the National Leagues could be cultural. They are, and are proud to be, a grassroots rugby club and you only have to read the player profiles in their programme to appreciate how many of them are sons of the local soil.
That has been the club's strength. Could it now, though, be a weakness? Heathbrook will remain a welcoming place for all the players of the area. "We still have a strong ethos as a rugby club," says Bannatyne.
But if the club are to return to the upper echelons of English rugby, will they have to cast their net a little wider than they do? For the last two years Dudley have, as their DOR puts it, "opened the door a little" when it comes to "looking after" their players. Those core principles may have to come up for further re-examination.