Ever since Tuesday night's fatal victory for Colchester United over Grimsby Town, Forest Green Rovers fans have been coming to terms with the fact that 2024 marks the second year in a row for a relegation.

After the Nailsworth club's ascent to the giddy heights of the English Football League's League One, a seven-year stay in the EFL will come to a juddering halt in August with a return to the National League, professional football's fifth tier.

For fans across Stroud's five valleys and beyond, it's been a ride into hell as much as a hell of a ride. Two years ago, victory in League Two under manager ingenue Rob Edwards saw the smallest fish in the EFL pond take on and sink far bigger beasts, but seven managerial changes later and, after countless chants from The New Lawn's stands that "We never win at home and we never win away", reality now hangs over the club. As one fan, reflecting on nine wins in 44 games, quipped: "It's been like a two year game of snakes and ladders. Without the ladders."

With street parties breaking out in Cheltenham, beyond the schoolboy schadenfreude that followed Tuesday's news, an unusual peace broke out among FGR's loyal fans. Perhaps the calm is tempered by the relief of certainty, but what of the financial impact on the club for this latest downward move?

As reported in Punchline-Gloucester.com in February, FGR reported a loss of £1.3m  for the previous year ending June 2023, with admin costs escalating from £2.3m to £3.5m.

A raft of humane dispatches followed, with the exit of director of football Allan Steele, CEO Marcus Reynolds, Will Daniels, head of recruitment, analysis, and innovation, Ben Strange, head of football operations, and Iain Paterson, head of matchday and hospitality.

More recently, we learned that FGR has spent £266,191 on agent fees in the last year, being only beaten by Wrexham, albeit their investment proved more fortunate on an investment return basis.

Kieran Maguire, who is the author The Price of Football and specialises in the financial side of the sport was recently asked to price up the cost of a drop to the NL when Oldham Athletic suffered the same misfortune (a pivotal moment for that team being defeat at The New Lawn on April 18, 2022).

He told the Oldham Times: "If you're relegated you get parachute payments for two seasons from the EFL but immediately you lose all of what's referred to as solidarity payments from the Premier League."

These currently stand at around £700,000 a year, and to that loss can be added a reduction in what is known as a parachute payment.

He added: "You get £400,000 a year in League Two from EFL deals so I think that gets halved, so you go from about £1.1million to £200,000."

To that incoming challenge, National League turnstile earnings are also lower on average than League Two, but according to Nailsworth-based fan Andrew Budd, that's no given.

Mr Budd told Punchline: "It'll be interesting - as long as we make a reasonable start and sustain it, I think our home fan attendances may hold. I'm certainly hoping for better entertainment in National League games than the sort of dross we've watched this season."

Martin Hynes, who lives in Ipswich and travels to see club with his partner Jo for many fixtures, told Punchline: "We just need a mood change. Two years of relentless misery and anticipating defeat takes its toll."

Relegation also spells steeper sponsorship and partnership challenges, but FGR's press office has not been short of new-deal announcements this year despite the downward trajectory - and has significantly just renewed its partnership with waste management giant Grundon, which finances the club's hugely successful ambassador program.

Grundon's decade of association with a club is an obvious synergy, but as business scrambles to adjust its message to a changing - greening - market, FGR's schtick is as strong as ever, whether in or out of the EFL.

The investment proposition is perhaps best summed up by USA cosmetics brand Faith in Nature, who recently signed an ongoing deal with the club.

A spokesperson said: "We might not be your usual football crowd, but FGR aren't your usual football club either. They're the world's first UN certified carbon neutral football club. They're vegan. The club is powered entirely by renewables and they've pledged to hit net zero carbon emissions 10 years ahead of the 2050 Paris climate agreement deadline. So if that's not worth cheering, what is?"

For a while on Wednesday, as the reality settled in for fans everywhere, questions stirred about an apparent silence from the club's chairman and owner, Dale Vince.

But his eventual statement, made via X (formerly Twitter), seemed to steady the ship.

Mr Vince said: "Obviously everyone at the club is disappointed... our best efforts have not been good enough, in recruitment primarily - it's not a budget issue.

"On the upside we now have in place an excellent manager and player recruitment lead in Steve Cotterill."

New training facilities will be opening at the formative Eco Park site, FGR's new home, he added, in time for next season, and will be "by far and away the best facilities we have ever had."

He added: "Relegation is something nobody wants, but it happens in football of course and it's not the end of the world. It's a litmus test against which we can be clear that we have not been good enough, but we plan to recover."

He also made a pledge to "move heaven and earth to get back to a better place."