Everton 2-0 Peterborough: Toffees legends guide club into FA Cup fourth round in surreal atmosphere hours after Sean Dyche's sacking
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Moments before kick-off, the Goodison Park tannoy announcer urged Everton's loyalists to give 'a very warm welcome' in freezing temperatures to Leighton Baines and Seamus Coleman, who had been frogmarched into the dug-out as caretaker managers at just three hours notice.
Generous applause did ring around the ground for two club heroes followed by a brief rendition of 'Come on You Blues'. But once the game started, the only sounds of joy came from the three thousand followers of League One Peterborough. These are very strange times on the blue half of Merseyside and it'll need more than the abrupt dismissal of an unpopular manager in Sean Dyche to convince the diehards everything is going to be alright.
For long periods, the famous old stadium was as eerily quiet as the mist rolling around outside. Most of those long-suffering Everton fans would have been getting ready to travel to the stadium when the bombshell statement dropped just after half-past four that Dyche's contract had been terminated.
Initial reaction on phone-in shows was positive. Dyche unloved because his teams were both dull and unsuccessful - three wins in 19 league games leaving the team only a point above relegation. . One early arrival at Goodison tooted their car horns whilst others dodged broadcast crews wanting a verdict on the sacking. But if the club's new owners, The Friedkin Group, had hoped to spark some kind of festive celebration with the timing of their announcement, they were mistaken.
Everton fans were as much dazed and confused by the news as anything else and the names being floated of possible successors, David Moyes and Jose Mourinho, didn't hint of future carnival, even though Premier League survival is the most immediate priority given the club move to a new 52,000-seater stadium in the summer.
