There was a point much earlier in the season that this Easter weekend was being viewed as four pivotal days in the destiny of Cheltenham Town.
As it turns out, the dramatic upturn in form under Michael Duff since September had rendered the match against Oldham Athletic, and this one against Morecambe, irrelevant in terms of League Two survival.
Not that the manager was satisfied in any way with this insipid display against the Shrimps at the Globe Arena.
The Robins were sloppy from start to finish, conceding four second half goals to suffer their heaviest defeat under Duff and in truth it could have been many more.
He rang the changes for the penultimate trip of the season, making four including starts for three youth products on a gloriously sunny afternoon up north.
Defender Matt Bower had previously made four league substitute appearances but started here for the first time in place of Will Boyle in the back three. In also came Cameron Pring (for Chris Hussey) while George Lloyd was retained in attack alongside Luke Varney.
Meanwhile Ryan Broom (Sean Long) and Billy Waters (Kevin Dawson) were included and there was positive news on the bench, Alex Addai returning after a lengthy spell on the sidelines through injury.
There had been very little action of note until Bower was adjudged to have tripped Vadaine Oliver with 20 minutes on the clock, conceding a penalty kick.
Fortunately from a Cheltenham perspective, Scott Flinders came to the rescue by kicking away Aaron Collins’ effort.
There was a half-chance for Lloyd, picking up a pass by Bower but the young striker curled his chance high and wide from a promising position 25 yards from goal.
Other than that Charlie Raglan was called into a goal line clearance to deny Aaron Wildig, amounting to the highlights before the interval.
The hosts went on to carve a deserved two-goal lead within eight minutes of the restart, taking full advantage of some poor defending to take an unassailable lead.
The first was scored by Oliver, racing through on goal before calmly sliding one underneath Flinders.
The second was by veteran Kevin Ellison, who had the freedom of the penalty area to head home Pietro Mingoia’s corner from the left.
Duff sent on Rakish Bingham (for Lloyd), Chris Clements (Waters) and Will Boyle (Bower) to rescue the match and there was a chance for Raglan, meeting a Clements’ corner but it dropped wide.
The hosts added the third nine minutes from time, again from a corner sent in by replacement Liam Mandeville and headed home by Sam Lavelle at the far post.
Aaron Collins completed the rout four minutes later with a deft angled finish on an afternoon to forget for the 169 travelling supporters.
MORECAMBE (4-4-2): Roche; Mills, Lavelle, Old, Conlan; Mingoia (Mendes-Gomes 72), Fleming, Wildig, Ellison; Oliver (Mandeville 67), Collins. Subs not used: Halstead (Gk), Kenyon, Sutton, Hedley, Cranston.
CHELTENHAM TOWN (3-5-2): Finders; Raglan, Tozer (c), Bower (Boyle 61); Broom, Thomas, Waters (Clements 61), Tillson, Pring; Lloyd (Bingham 61), Varney. Subs not used: Lovett (Gk), Addai, Forster.
REFREE: J Gillett
ATTENDANCE: 2,897 (169 from Cheltenham)