This time last week, Torquay United were looking forward to facing Crawley Town in the fourth round of the FA Cup and the possibility of winning through to round five and the prospect of a money spinning tie.
In the seven days that have passed since then, the Gulls have been knocked out of the cup and seen their victors drawn away to Manchester United, lost their leading scorer to a higher division club and are facing a possible points deduction for fielding an ineligible player.
Crawley came out on top, winning 1-0 courtesy of a first half strike from Matt Tubbs, in a match that saw goalkeeper Scott Bevan make two penalty saves for Torquay.
It was their first FA Cup defeat to a side from a lower league since Paul Buckle took charge in 2007.
To make matters worse, Crawley were then handed a dream tie against Manchester United at Old Trafford.
The final day of the January transfer window saw leading scorer Elliot Benyon leave for Swindon Town for an initial £125,000 and Nicky Wroe move to Shrewsbury Town for a fee in the region of £10,000 with Jake Robinson moving in the opposite direction on loan until the end of the season.
Both deals represent good business for the Gulls as the Benyon fee was the first six figure sum the club have earned in the transfer market since David Graham moved to Wigan Athletic for £215,000 in 2004. The fee that they received for Wroe was believed to be slightly higher than the fee paid to York City for his services in 2008.
Then came a 3-1 home defeat by Hereford United, which will now always be remembered as the game when the Gulls fielded the unregistered Jake Robinson, who scored Torquay's only goal of the night, which could leave the club facing a potential points deduction.
The club have since offered an explanation to the Football League and are awaiting a response from them on the matter.
In other cases where clubs have fielded an ineligible player they have been docked points, but as the Gulls did not obtain any advantage points wise from Robinson being on the field, the Football League may decide to reduce the goals for column by taking off the goal that Robinson scored.
However, if the Football League decided on a points deduction, the Gulls would seriously undermine any Play-Off ambitions they may have had.
