Having lost back-to-back league games at Bolton and then Blackpool, in addition to being dumped out of the FA Cup by Peterborough at the first round stage, Cardiff City fans could have been forgiven for fearing their new-look team were hitting something of a rough spell following what was a rip-roaring start to the season.
Instead, they will go to Stevenage on Tuesday night in buoyant mood and optimistic they can stretch their lead over the chasing pack at the top of League One.
Much of the reason is, fortunately for the Bluebirds, they now boast a head coach who has developed a remarkable knack of re-setting his team by squeezing every last ounce of effort and quality from his young squad.
Having left his role with Manchester City's elite development squad to take charge at Cardiff City Stadium in the summer, it has been no surprise that Brian Barry-Murphy has adopted many methods utilised in Manchester in his current role in south Wales.
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But it is clear the Irishman has no desire to be a League One imitation of Pep Guardiola.
The Cork native has also been influenced by a number of top football managers, including, of course, Guardiola, but also David Moyes and Mauricio Pochettino.
"They (Guardiola and Moyes) have completely different styles of play but they had the same kind of values in terms of the obsessiveness about how they wanted to play and their drive," he told The Winter View podcast this week.
Barry-Murphy’s father, Jimmy, a GAA icon, also played a huge role in shaping the way the Cardiff boss sees the game and in the manner in which he both respects and appreciates certain values.
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It perhaps goes some way to explaining how and why Barry-Murphy kept the coolest of heads as Cardiff ran riot from the outset of the third tier campaign, and managed the same when things weren't so positive.
His time working with elite talent including Oscar Bobb, Liam Delap, Morgan Rogers, Cole Palmer and Romeo Lavia in the academy at the Ethiad Campus has also been pivotal when it comes to his exemplary handling of Cardiff's young guns.
The likes of Rubin Colwill, Joel Colwill, Ronan Kpakio, Dylan Lawlor and Isaak Davies have all been handed prominent roles since the club's relegation from the Championship, but they have fully rewarded the faith shown in them by Barry-Murphy so far.
Discussing how to get full buy-in from youth talent, Barry-Murphy says: "If you can convince them really quickly that the work you're going to do for them has a real benefit for them and it's going to help them reach where they want to go really quickly, I think you'll get pretty much instant buy back.
"Then, you can start to work on them appreciating what it is to be part of a team."
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The aforementioned blip of three games did come around an impressive 2-1 win at Wrexham in the League Cup, the reward for which is a plum quarter-final tie with Premier League Chelsea at Cardiff City Stadium on December 16.
But the incredible experiences, and crucially the figures central to them, Barry-Murphy has had during his career to date have been nothing short of priceless when it comes to how he continues to shape his Bluebirds side – and the lessons he can call upon when things go awry.
To that end, it should be no surprise that Cardiff snapped their brief glum spell by winning three successive league matches - scoring three goals against each of Northampton, Mansfield and Huddersfield in that run - to return to the summit of the league table.
The Cardiff boss will never be David Moyes, nor will he be Pep Guardiola, or even Mauricio Pochettino for that matter. Brian Barry-Murphy is his own man.
But his willingness and eagerness to absorb every last nugget from some of the finest minds and talents in the game have, piece by piece, ensured he continues to be the truest version of himself.
He has not wasted all those diverse influences, meaning he will likely continue to make good use of them during the remainder of his managerial career.
