Everton 2-0 Peterborough: Toffees legends guide club into FA Cup fourth round in surreal atmosphere hours after Sean Dyche’s sacking

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.

At least nobody could diss Baines and Coleman, who have given the club so much in good, and often bad, times.

Their tenure is likely to be only one game with Everton keen to make an appointment before the next fixture against Aston Villa next Wednesday. But this fixture was also important – potentially the last ever FA Cup-tie at Goodison Park and the first step to try and end a 30-year wait for a trophy.

The team sheet handed in by the joint-interims would have made Dyche chuckle. He regularly complained about the paucity of the squad when injuries hit and Everton were only able to name eight substitutes last night – including two goalkeepers – instead of the permitted nine.

In the starting line-up, 17-year-old Harrison Armstrong started only his second senior game and the lesser-spotted Jake O’Brien, an £18million summer signing, was drafted in for his first start since September as Everton began life post-Dyche with a back-three.

On the Everton bench sat 39-year-old Ashley Young, whose 18-year-old son Tyler was among the Peterborough substitutes.

There was barely a murmur when Posh goalkeeper Nicholas Bilokapic almost misjudged a shot from Idrissa Gueye as the League One underdogs comfortably dealt with the opening half-hour, under the guise of the watching Sir Alex Ferguson, father of their manager, Darren.

Of the two Everton ‘managers’, Baines was the most visible in the technical area, as Ferguson cajoled Boro.

There were roars from the visitor’s end when they won their first corner after 35 minutes and Cian Hayes shot had a goalbound shot blocked by Jarrad Branthwaite.

The surreal atmosphere even extended to the opening goal after 42 minutes. Armstrong slipped in Beto who beat the offside trap and rolled the ball home from an acute angle.

In normal times, Beto’s fourth goal of the season would have been greeted by a guttural roar from the most passionate fans in the country. This one was met by polite handclaps and the occasional half-hearted cheer.

If David Moyes was at home assessing his potential future charges on an ipad, he would have noted the defensive reading of the game of Branthwaite, the trickery of Iliman Ndiaye and the effervescence of Armstrong.

But you could also tell why Everton are the second-lowest scorers in the Premier League.

Posh, a lowly 19th in the third tier, gained ambition by attacking the end where their supporters were in the second half. Everton centre-forward Beto was more useful in his own penalty area heading away corners than he was in the final third.

Baines and Coleman mumbled suggestions to each other in the technical area seeking ways to make Everton’s supposed superior individual quality count. Opposite, Ferguson let his frustration show when his players passed back all the way back to Bilokapic from a promising position.

There was the sorry sight of injury-prone Armando Broja being carried off on a stretcher just 19 minutes after he’d arrived on the pitch himself.

Ashley Young had been summoned from the bench after 73 minutes to leave all eyes on when Tyler would join him to make history as the FA Cup father-and-son in opposition. It never happened.

On a night when a man lost his job, there was nothing to be too excited about, even though Everton sealed their passage into the fourth round with an injury-time penalty from Ndiaye after Branthwaite had been pulled back.