From the moment affable gate man Les Arnold appeared in the Sixfields doorway in a high-visibility jacket bearing the Coventry City club crest, it was clear this was going to be a very strange day.
It was Sixfields, but not as Northamptonians know it. Everything was slightly different – unknown club staff in strange colours, Warwickshire accents in the car parks and the unmistakeable scent of two o’clock dissent outside the west stand.
Inside the ground, the atmosphere was no less surreal as the Coventry supporters wore the expressions of genuine football people torn between an unequivocal disapproval of the owners’ actions and their palpable love for their team and players.
They sat and bared it, and only grinned when their side got into attacking areas, which they did with some aplomb and at regular intervals throughout a great game, leading to an avalanche of goals.
As one hack was heard to quip on the press bench as the Sky Blues headed into the interval three up: “Can we play here every week?”
It is the supporters who are, depressingly, paying the price for the game of rich man’s brinkmanship which has led to Sunday’s situation and, rightly, none of them were happy about it.
But sport – and especially football – has a way of inspiring the kind of devotion that manifests itself almost as a religion. It must have been a deeply difficult decision for these fans to make over whether to attend Sixfields at the weekend.
Attend they did, though, and within minutes of the start they had given an airing to the anthem that has followed them from Highfield Road to the Ricoh Arena to Northampton, the Eton Boating Song.
It was being sung loud and proud after each of the three goals that Coventry scored in a first half in which Bristol City imploded and the ‘home side’ could barely believe their luck.
Their ruthless professionalism was matched by some textbook touchline intensity from Stephen Pressley, whose greying beard, sharp-cut waistcoat and leather-bound pocketbook gave him the air of a Victorian-era explorer contemplating his next trip around the Cape.
Such intensity was amplified in the second half when Bristol City scored three quick goals to briefly restore parity.
In keeping with the drama of the day, Callum Wilson rattled in what he thought was the winner after the visitors had completely failed to deal with a long ball before Marlon Harewood hooked home a volley with his first touch.
The scoring was not over, though. Billy Daniels tapped home with three minutes on the Sixfields scoreboard to make the scoreline beneath it 5-4. It was a staggering end to a breathless match on a truly surreal afternoon.
It is mindlessly flippant to suggest a see-saw victory will cause the Coventry supporters at Sixfields to forget about the wider issues for even a brief moment.
And in fact, while this was a good comeback win for the Sky Blues, the Sixfields tenants, in many ways the true victory was for the indomitable spirit of the club’s fans, around a thousand of whom made the journey.
Their message to their players was clear – we are with you, and we will always be with you.