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Two days before Christmas, without warning, Coventry United players were told their team was no more.
The Women's Championship club had only turned professional at the start of this season, but the players suddenly found themselves without an income and scrabbling around for a new team.
Yet just under three months on, not only are the team still in existence after a last-minute buyout from a Midlands-based businessman, but they have the tantalising prospect of an FA Cup quarter-final against Women's Super League giants Arsenal on Friday.
It's been quite the turnaround in fortunes for the club, whose captain Katie Wilkinson was among those left to pick up the pieces after the players were told the club was facing liquidation on a Zoom call last December.
She told BBC Sport: "We had tears and anger. It was a lot to get your head around.
"It wasn't just about losing your team-mates and team. It was your job, your livelihood, it was two days before Christmas and being told no-one is getting paid for that whole month they worked.
"It was a lot of stress, as well as the emotion of grieving a team. We had players in a lot of distress and for me they were my priority."
Administrators said the club would be liquidated at 5pm on 4 January.
Amazingly, just a minute before the deadline, a verbal deal with West Midlands businessman Lewis Taylor was given the thumbs up by shareholders.
The players had spent the previous two weeks trying to figure out their futures.
As captain, Wilkinson says she saw it as her responsibility to step up, speak to the FA and the PFA, and find out where the players stood legally and financially, admitting she took "a lot on her shoulders".
To then find out the club had been saved just before it was due to go out of business was an "unexplainable feeling", says Wilkinson.
"I can't sit here and say it was a happy emotion because for two weeks we were trawling to find a club, another job, potentially moving to a different city and leaving your home and family.
"Getting your head around that - then going back to what we were originally doing all along.
"Once that shock had gone, though, we were all just buzzing to be back in and back with each other."
Taylor, the man behind the rescue deal, is chief executive of energy suppliers Energy Angels, who were already involved in football as shirt sponsors for Women's National League side Wolves when the Coventry opportunity arose.
It was part of his long-term dream to become more involved in a club.
"We saw what was happening at Coventry United and it just felt the right time," he said.
"Even though it wasn't in our plans for this season, or even next season, you can move those plans around when you see something that is really wrong. It felt like we could help."
After the turmoil surrounding the club, he says the players seemed a bit "shell-shocked" in the first few weeks of his ownership, expecting more bad news around every corner.
"It was like 'Lewis is coming to the training ground today' and the reaction (from the players) was 'oh no, what's wrong?', instead of 'great we get to meet Lewis'.
United, who were bottom of the league on minus four points after being docked 10 points for going into liquidation, lost three league games in a row after the rescue was agreed.
But Taylor says the negativity around the club has started to shift in recent weeks.
"If you were to look at where we were six weeks ago to the general feeling around the club now, it's great. The FA Cup run is just brilliant to see. That's confidence right there coming from the players."
As well as seeing off Billericay and West Brom in the Cup, they have also gone unbeaten in their last three league matches, including a crucial win over Crystal Palace which has given them hope of avoiding relegation.
Taylor says he is "over the moon" that his players have now been rewarded with a glamour tie at Arsenal.
"They absolutely deserve it. The fact that they have dug in and carried on is just great. Now they are reaping the benefits."
Facing the 14-time FA Cup winners on their home ground is one of the toughest draws Coventry could have been handed.
But Wilkinson believes what her and her team-mates have been through this season has made them ready for any challenge.
"A lot of teams and players would have crumbled in these situations," she said.
"We had players who chose to leave our club, we all had opportunities to leave but every single person in that room chose to stay and fight for the club. For me that is something special.
"There is that bond and that fight within our group that we are not going to give up easily.
"No-one is expecting us to win on the Friday night and no-one is expecting us to stay in the league, but I can guarantee that every single one of our players will believe."
