That was exactly what happened to Newport County after they lost 1-0 win at Shrewsbury last weekend, though.
County toiled . . . and were then trolled on the Shrewsbury club website.
Despite being rock bottom of the Football League prior to their defeat to Michael Appleton's side, the Exiles somehow managed to dig even deeper into the trench they were already in.
Despite having more possession than Shrewsbury, it was the hosts who carried by far the greater threat at The Croud Meadow.
The Shrews had 19 shots, almost double the 10 Newport managed. Six of those were on target, three times as many as the visitors had on target.
Shrewsbury also had more touches in the opposition box than Newport achieved and forced goalkeeper Jordan Wright into double the amount of saves that their own shot-stopper, Will Brook had to make.
READ MORE: David Hughes Admits it Was Time to go at Newport County
Chairman Huw Jenkins was in attendance to watch his side's wretched campaign take another miserable turn, and it took just one hour until after the final whistle in Shropshire for the club to officially confirm that Dave Hughes had been sacked - although the head coach had already announced his fate himself to the assembled media around 15 minutes earlier.
Now, the club are hopeful of announcing a new manager before Saturday's trip to Oldham Athletic.
Former Wales and Newport striker Nathan Blake felt Hughes' departure was inevitable.
"I think it was the worst kept secret in football that Dave was under major pressure and the fact that he was going to lose his job was nigh, I think everybody knew it," he told the BBC.
The reaction from fans spoke volumes.
Many had a great deal of sympathy for the former Manchester United youth coach, and indeed his assistant, and club favourite Wayne Hatswell, who was also dismissed, while a lot of anger has been aimed directly at Jenkins.
READ MORE: David Hughes Backed to Lift Newport County off The Bottom . . . And Save His Job
It's clear the club have been eager to shift in a new direction - with an improved style of play being among the key aims for Hughes when he was named as Nelson Jardim's successor in the summer.
But in a league as varied and as brutal as the English fourth tier, where the trap door to non-league is never too far away, certain tools are required to be, at the very least, competitive.
"I don't think he's probably been given the backing that he thought he would get in terms of the type of player he's been able to bring in," said ex-Wales defender Danny Gabbidon.
Concerns were raised early on at the lack of experience within Newport's ranks this season.
READ MORE: David Hughes Insists Only Regular Victories Count as a Revival
According to Transfermarkt, the Exiles' average age of 23.9 is comfortably the lowest in League Two so far this term.
They recruited some exciting young loan talents including Leicester City's Sammy Braybrooke, Manchester United's Habeeb Ogunneye and Swansea City's Ben Lloyd - although it is an enormous ask for so many inexperienced youth players to deliver week-in week-out against more battle-hardened opponents.
It has all led to the club being left behind, with the data highlighting the scale of the team's struggles.
As per Fotmob data, only two sides (Cheltenham Town and Harrogate Town) have a lower expected goals (xG) conceded than Newport's figure of 26.
They have conceded the joint-most penalties (four) in the league this season and they are committing the most fouls (13.6 per match) of any team in the fourth tier.
Goals and clean sheets are hard to come by, too.
The only saving grace is that - despite winning just three of their 16 league games so far this season, the worst return in the division - Newport are still only four points adrift of safety with 30 games still to be played.
For the time being at least, the long-term project will need to be put on the back burner.
The immediate focus will be on becoming hard to beat again, which in turn should give Newport a better platform to improve on their meagre points total.
There is no doubt that matters behind-the-scenes are far from rosy, and Jenkins will need to utilise all of his experience to get this managerial appointment right.
If he doesn't, the aforementioned trap door will slowly continue to crank open below them.
