It had to be done eventually.
The wonderful cheese dream that England had could not last forever. The wake up would be provided by the alarm clock.
A defeat by South Africa at Lord's doesn't mean the bubble has burst, the honeymoon is over or the ship has sunk
It's not a good idea to throw the ball out with the water. The pumping at the hands of the South Africans was not enough.
England had forgotten how to win in less than a month. The results have been transformed by the combined efforts of the coach and captain.
England's wins against New Zealand and India have been accused of being a result of good fortune. Things might have been different if there had been a no-ball here.
We would all be happy at Christmas if cherries and nuts were involved. There were things that helped England. The result could have been different if they had won the toss and been given the chance to bowl first.
You do not beat New Zealand, the world Test champion, then stroll a record run chase against India because of the factors that helped England in those four wins.
The first defeat of the summer was due to England's most passive performance. It was definitely not Bazball, that's for sure.
They poked and prodded their way to a second-innings collapse in front of a Lord's crowd slowly realising the Test wouldn't see Friday evening.
England wasn't allowed to flourish by the South African attack. It's hard for batters to impose themselves on Kagiso Rabada, who has 250 Test wickets at an average of 22 with a strike-rate of 40, when he is bowling 94mph howitzers.
England were also responsible. Bairstow and Alex Lees were guilty of poor shots in the first and Pope and Zak were guilty of poor shots in the second.
Since the win against India at the start of July, only Matthew Potts has been bowling competitively.
England might argue that a short-ball tactic has been successful against tailenders so far this summer, but it resulted in momentum being handed back to South Africa on the second evening and it was too much.
It always felt like the real intrigue lay in how England would respond to a defeat, even if it was only for a short time.
Kipling wrote that if you can meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two imposters just the same.
The captain has said that the message to the players won't change regardless of the results.
There will be no major changes to the XI for the next game in the series because England named a squad for the first two. The most likely move would be the return of Ollie Robinson for his first international appearance since January.
The spotlight will remain on the opener, who has not scored a half-century in 14 Tests. Regardless of what happens in Manchester, the Kent man could be backed to finish the series at The Oval, despite his batting average falling more steadily than the value of the pound.
There is a question as to whether keeping him in the firing line is more harmful than beneficial. Even though he bats in the middle order for Yorkshire, Harry Brook has been suggested as a possible opener even though he doesn't bat in the top order.
England's success this summer is not solely down to hitting the ball to the boundary or packing the slip cordon.
The shift in mentality and not sweating over what might go wrong has been important. The players have been told not to fear failure in order to be successful.
How England bounces back will be fascinating.
They went to the dance floor. They need to dance with it.
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