Saturday was one of those defeats, as fans witnessed an embarrassing performance, shambolic defending and for the first time, some inexplicable management decisions which led to Aldershot's worst defeat of the season.
Terry Brown's men earned their first win against Crawley Town last Monday, but were sadly unable to capitalise and now find themselves in an even deeper rut.
But what made this defeat harder to take for the suffering fans was the way in which the Shots lost — with commitment being questioned for the first time with only a handful of players seemingly out for the cause.
Poor defending had cost the Shots two goals in the first half, although Brown will be pleased with the way his troops battled back, levelling twice within minutes of falling behind.
In the second half though, that all changed.
Instead of launching their fight-back as Morecambe netted a third time, they rolled over, allowing Morecambe to hit cruise control and put the Shots back down to the bottom of the table, thus heaping further misery on a weary-looking Brown.
“At the moment, the whole defence is a problem for us. It's not that easy to bring players in, they cost money, I've already got a big squad but key players aren't available to me.
“A lot of the problems we had today we can put right on the training pitch. It's a collective thing, I'm not having a pop at the boys, I've told them I'm not going to scream and shout at them today. We were very poor defensively and that's for me and the boys to work on,” said Brown.
Things have certainly got to change but with his budget supposedly used up and options increasingly limited, how he will manage to do this, only Brown knows.
“There was some awful defending today,” he admitted.
“Morecambe thoroughly deserve their win as they were better than us in most departments. All the troubles we had were our own, defensively we were very, very poor, and I don't just mean the back four, I mean the whole side.
“We said to them at half time that we'd need to defend better but we went out and defended a whole lot worse. The third goal was diabolical defensively, there's a lot of work to do but we've got to do that together and improve on the training ground before Saturday,” said Brown.
With Stevenage looming, and clashes against Accrington Stanley and Hereford all coming up, September is not likely to be an easy month.
Before the goals, both sides had chances — Crittenden firing just wide within three minutes and Steve Watson testing keeper Ryan Robinson from distance.
Robinson's counterpart Nikki Bull was also kept busy, blocking from Sean O'Connor and Wayne Curtis, who followed up by heading over the bar. Michael Twiss mis-hit an effort while Bull again collected from a Connor free-kick.
Then on 25 minutes the Shrimps took the lead when Curtis, who had repeatedly got the better of Tarkan Mustafa down the left flank, was allowed to head home unchallenged from Chris Blackburn's cross.
But within five minutes, however, the Shots were level.
Ryan Williams' corner was punched clear by Robinson, Guyett headed back only for O'Connor to clear off the line, but Greg Heald stabbed home from close range — the first goal Morecambe have conceded at home all season.
Not to be outdone, the Shrimps set off to take the lead again, Twiss striking the post and Garry Thompson firing over the top.
They did, however, find their second just before the break — and in bizarre circumstances.
Despite Mustafa lying injured, play continued with Twiss on the by-line, Heald blocked the cross and the ball looked like it had gone out for a corner as Bull tried to collect. With all the Shots players believing it had gone out of play, Twiss got hold of the ball and squared allowing O'Connor the simplest of tap-ins on his own in the box.
Once again, however, again, the Shots came back just seconds before the break — McPhee breaking free from his marker to head home Tim Sills' centre.
With the game level, and there for the taking, the Shots started the second period on the attack, exactly as Brown would have liked. McPhee almost got a second with a header from Williams' free kick, only to see it drift wide.
But it was the Shrimps who took the lead for the third time, with Curtis again getting the better of Mustafa.
Crittenden intervened but succeeded only in giving away a free kick on the edge of the area. Thompson delivered and an unmarked Twiss was able to head home past the lunging Bull, who got a touch.
Desperate for another comeback, Sills twice shot just wide as he continued to run himself ragged for the cause, but this time there was to be no response, as Morecambe seized the opportunity to humilate their visitors.
Bull punched clear from a corner before Twiss shot wide, and in desperation, Brown reacted — somewhat strangely.
Hassan Suliaman replaced Crittenden on the wing, but just ten minutes later, was taken off and replaced by John Brough for “tactical reasons.”
They switched to a 3-4-3 bringing Williams into a more central role — despite his man-of-the-match performance on the left wing last week — but the changes were fruitless as the Shrimps still found their fourth.
With Brough pulling up injured in his chase back towards goal Garry Hunter fed Danny Carlton who slotted past the on-rushing Bull.
Brown had no option but to take off substitute Brough with youngster Matt Gearing taking to the field.
Morecambe still went on to claim their fifth, Thompson's cross found Twiss who was allowed time and space to pick out his shot past Bull.
The Shots rallied late on but, in truth, this was the latest chapter in what has been a torrid start to the season for Brown.
While Morecambe has never been an easy place to go, defeat doesn't feel as bad if 100% effort is put in.
Sadly at Christie Park that wasn't the case, and the loyal fans, many of whom had made the long trip north, deserved better than that.
Brown added: “I don't want the boys to pick themselves up, I want them to be down because I'm feeling very, very down. I want them to feel the pain of a very bad result away from home.
“We will go though the goals, see where the problems were and hopefully we can benefit from that, because you have to benefit from a defeat like this.”
SHOTS: Bull 6, Mustafa 4, Guyett 5, Heald 5, Hamilton 5, Crittenden 6 (sub Sulaiman 59mins, sub Brough 70, sub Gearing 79), Somner 5, Watson 6, Williams 6, SILLS 7, McPhee 6. Not used: Weait, Scott. Ref P Varley 6. Att 1429
With thanks to the Aldershot News.