First there was the decision. Then there were the angry statements. And the effect of all the angry statements was…sod all. Surprise, surprise.

Yes, the Football Association may have conceded that parts of the process in abolishing FA Cup replays were “wrong”, according to John Nixon.

The meat of the matter, though, remains. After the sudden, eureka realisation of wrongness, and after plenty of heat from all those clubs who stamped their feet and called out the disgrace, will replays be reinstated?

Not on your life. There is “virtually nil” chance of this happening, according to Nixon in his account of a recent FA Council meeting.

So we have a kind-of mea culpa, passed on second hand, and this amounts to reassurance that the FA’s leadership is “taking steps in the right direction”, in the view of the Carlisle United director. But no change of the decision.

Sorry, but nobody deserves credit for the mole-eyed and frankly despicable initial viewing of this by the FA and Premier League. And they certainly don't for any gesture aimed at softening that stance thereafter.

If those making the call in the first place did not foresee that this kind of blindsiding move would upset most of the pyramid, they do not deserve to preside over our game.

If they knew that and did it anyway, the very same.

And, at the same time, if those clubs who turned to their official websites and put their feelings into writing felt that would make a jot of difference…well, now we have the answer.

Yes, it was all well and good – that collective voice, for once, permeating large levels of the sport, from EFL to grassroots. Most of the things written by clubs were right and true.

But how much of that anger was truly raw and real, with a background of preparedness to bond together do something more?

How much of it was that, and how much was just a different kind of gesture: nobody wanting to be left behind once Tranmere Rovers and others had published their take, calling it a disgrace?

Words, in the end, were never going to put a scratch on the people who did this. It was naive ever to think differently. 

When push came to shove several years ago, after all, another cup competition was easily allowed to be trampled upon, reformed and reclaimed, when executives and clubs should have better protected themselves instead of taking the money and arguing that it was not the thin end of the wedge. Those who took against it could not win that war with words, either.

One of the consequences of the EFL Trophy’s warping is that the door has remained held open for the Premier League to take other parts of lower-league football and bend them to its wishes. Hence, the hijacked FA Cup, now fundamentally for their benefit, not the majority's. Not the game's.

It's revealing, really. A belated "soz" in a meeting...and that's about it. Perhaps they regard the red lines suddenly discovered by lower league clubs today as washable. Perhaps there is plenty of past evidence pointing them to that verdict.

And so, unless collective action follows all those firm words – and yes, unless a boycott of the FA Cup remains very much in the minds of the disgruntled – nothing will change other than in the way the over-powerful elite wants it to. Again and again and again.