In the end it was the straw that broke the camel's back.
Sunderland's 6-0 humiliation at Bolton proved to be the final act for Lee Johnson, with the club announcing his sacking just over 24 hours later along with the departure of his long-time assistant Jamie McAllister.
In some ways it was a surprise - owner Kyril Louis-Dreyfus said last summer, following the club's failure to win promotion through the play-offs, that Johnson was 'a long-term appointment from the start'.
READ MORE: Sunderland sack Lee Johnson after 14 months in charge at the Stadium of Light
Well, now we know how he defines 'long-term': it means a little under 14 months and Johnson has gone having failed to complete a full season in charge.
Louis-Dreyfus also said of Johnson 'he is the right man to lead us to promotion, hopefully in this forthcoming season'.
With Sunderland sitting third in the table, a point outside the automatic promotion places and two points behind the leaders - albeit having played more games than their rivals - it appears he has lost faith in Johnson.
However, in other ways, Johnson's sacking was not a surprise at all.
He had survived a sticky patch earlier in the season when Sunderland lost three league games in a row, exited the FA Cup at the first hurdle against League Two opposition, and ground out an unconvincing draw against Bradford City in the EFL Trophy.
There was talk of tensions behind the scenes over recruitment.
The club went into the New Year at the top of the table, but has since taken only five points from five games.
The dissenting voices on the terraces were growing.
And then came Bolton, followed by the fierce backlash.
Before Johnson was sacked, I tried to find the words to sum up Saturday's performance.
Humiliation. Humbling. Shameful. Unacceptable. A disgrace.
Catrastrophe. Disaster. Calamity.
Any of those would have fitted the bill.
But however you looked at it, it was a dark day for Sunderland, this group of players, and for Johnson.
It was Sunderland's heaviest defeat for more than seven years, their heaviest ever in the third tier, and their heaviest in 150 meetings with Bolton Wanderers in all competitions.
Sunderland started the day within reach of the summit of League One, yet they turned in a performance that would have embarrassed the most lowly of relegation strugglers.
They were a disjointed, disorganised, shambolic, rabble.
It was put to Johnson afterwards that towards the end it looked like his players had given up.
Unsurprisingly, he rejected that idea.
But the evidence of your own eyes is impossible to refute.
More than 5,300 Sunderland fans had travelled to the University of Bolton Stadium, but most had left long before full-time and those that remained until the bitter end vented their fury at the players as they offered half-hearted gestures of apology from a safe distance.
Johnson accepted responsibility for the defeat afterwards and again apologised to the supporters - not that it cut any ice.
As he himself admitted: "Words are cheap."
The problem for Johnson was that this was not a one-off.
It was the third time this season that Sunderland have lost a league game by four or more goals - more than any other side in the division.
A 4-0 defeat a Portsmouth, a 5-1 defeat at Rotherham, and then this.
Then, while It didn't reach the four-goal threshold, you can chuck in the 3-0 defeat at Sheffield Wednesday as another chastening day on the road.
Sunderland have conceded 30 goals in 15 games on their travels, which is the highest figure in League One.
Compare that to the nine they have conceded in 14 games at home, which is the best record in the third tier.
Sunderland do not field wildly different starting XIs, use completely different formations, or employ totally different tactics on their travels, so what is going on here?
How can Sunderland keep a clean sheet against Portsmouth on Wearside one week, and then allow Dion Charles and Dapu Afolayan to run riot the next?
Yes, Sunderland played three at the back against Pompey and four at the back at Bolton, but don't get bogged down in shapes and systems.
A back four has been the norm this season, not the exception.
They could have played any system against Bolton and if the players performed the way they did yesterday it would have made no difference.
The tone was set from the moment a long wind-assisted clearance from the keeper caught out the Sunderland defence, Thorben Hoffmann misjudged the flight of the ball and was caught in no man's land, and Charles applied the finish.
A rapid counter provided Afolayan with the second just before half-time.
Charles volleyed home number three soon after the break, with Bolton passing around Sunderland's static defence to set up the fourth for Kieran Lee on the hour.
Danny Batth scored a textbook diving header, unfortunately at the wrong end, for the fifth late on, but there was still time for one-time Sunderland loanee Declan John to pick out the top corner for number six.
Batth made an outstanding debut against Portsmouth and this was only his second appearance.
Heaven knows what fellow new signings Jack Clarke and Patrick Roberts made of it when they were thrown on for their debuts in the second half.
It was just horrific from start to finish.
Having said all that,a sense of proportion is needed.
The notion that this was Sunderland's worst-ever defeat is for the birds.
Sunderland were beaten by a team in the same division by a margin of six goals.
Four times in the club's history they have lost a league game by eight goals without reply - most recently at Southampton in October 2014 - and once by seven.
And is a 6-0 defeat against a team in the same division worse than, say, a 2-1 defeat for a top flight side against non-league opposition such as Sunderland's Bank of England team experienced against Yeovil in the FA Cup in 1949?
But the fact that it is necessary to dig into the history books to try to find out where this defeat ranks in some kind of Hall of Shame tells you everything.
In the immediate aftermath, Johnson said he was prepared to take on the chin the inevitable criticism that would come his way.
As we now know, it proved to be a knock-out blow.
Promotion this season is non-negotiable in the eyes of supports.
He knew the deal.
He may yet have delivered promotion come the end of the season, but the fans had their doubts and so too did the owners.
Now it is someone else's turn.
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