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.