The international break has been and gone and it was a disastrous one for Ireland having been in such a good position to qualify for the 2018 World Cup before the results against Georgia and Serbia.
The dust has settled and the players have returned to their clubs until October, and suddenly Irish football finds itself in an existential crisis of sorts with doom and gloom replacing the optimism that had been a constant since Georgia did us a favour against Scotland in the Euro 2016 qualifiers.
One man who is not giving up hope is Stephen Hunt, however, as the former Ireland winger insisted that we are a quality team that should be expecting to beat Wales in his column in the Sunday Independent this morning.
While Hunt was adamant that we can get a result in Cardiff, he did air his concerns with the way Ireland played in the latter stages of the Serbia game. Describing the play as "desperate", he couldn't understand what James McClean was trying to do by coming deep to launch the ball forward, something that puzzled most of us watching.
I have been in a desperate team and it is not easy. You find yourself doing the wrong things because you are so eager to find an opening and saying to yourself, 'What am I doing?' There were a few times I looked at the team and asked that question.
Such as when James McClean was taking the ball off the 'keeper in the last 10 minutes. I am not singling him out, as McClean was in the top two or three Ireland players on the night, but the way he played in the last quarter of the game made no sense.
We had Shane Duffy, Daryl Murphy, Jon Walters and Shane Long all needing a ball into the area at an angle. If you have the big boys up front you want the best angle and height on the ball up the field. It is like a 70-yard chip in golf where you can't put enough spin on it - but can't hit it too hard either. You often get caught between the two and that certainly happened to McClean.
He was trying to play at left-back, right-back, left-wing, right-wing, and then running through the middle where it is impossible to play the right type of cross at the right angle.
We are not going to be a team like Spain that passes the ball to death and teams retreat all the time because we have to keep the ball. That last 10 minutes needed the long ball with McClean looking to get the knock-downs at the edge of the area instead of playing them. Darren Randolph could have done what McClean was doing. He doesn't have to be the hero all the time.
Hunt made the point that we all know what this team are capable of, and the reason we didn't see it against Serbia was down to poor choices and desperation.
We were struggling to create any sort of chance, and the big lads had to be sent up front so we had to try and get the ball in the box, but with Serbia so deep we could have worked some better positions to get a ball in, rather than aimlessly hoof it.
After a really bright start Ireland became frustrated and once the goal went in it was clear that the initial plan was out the window. As a side that doesn't have much of a 'Plan B' that's why we saw James McClean playing the role of sweeper-keeper, and it wasn't pretty.
You'd have to hope the time between international games will erase the memories of the last week or so for the Irish players.
You can read Stephen Hunt's column in full over on Independent.ie.
