An hour after full-time, the fire alarm was activated at the near-empty Stadium of Light.
Perhaps whoever triggered it was taking the same 'calm and patient' approach as sporting director Kristjaan Speakman to appointing the club's next head coach.
Because the real conflagration had already been raging on the pitch for an hour-and-a-half as Sunderland crashed and burned against bottom-of-the-table Doncaster Rovers, with their promotion chances in real danger of going up in smoke.
