West Brom supporters made their feelings clear about Tony Pulis in the 4-0 home defeat to Chelsea.
But it wasn’t that vitriolic at The Hawthorns on Saturday.
Instead, it was alarmingly apathetic.
There was apathy in the stands, where there were swathes of empty seats — an apathy which seeped onto the pitch as the champions ended up strolling to victory.
It all combined in a funeral atmosphere, and Pulis knew his reign was at death's door.
But as the Welshman receives his P45 there should be respectful mourners, because much of what he has done deserves credit.
His programme notes for Chelsea’s visit read like a self-penned post-script to his reign.
They trumpeted saving the club from relegation after he arrived in January 2015 with the Baggies in the drop zone.
He eventually steered them to a 13th place finish after offloading a raft of dud signings and drilling the defence into a tight unit.
Further finishes of 14th and 10th followed as Pulis brought in better-quality players, including Jonny Evans, Nacer Chadli, Kieran Gibbs and Jake Livermore.
But despite a bright start with successive 1-0 wins over Bournemouth and Burnley in the opening two matches, this season became a nightmare for him.
He lost skipper Darren Fletcher to Stoke on a Bosman after a contract wrangle and his long-term No.2 Dave Kemp retired in the summer, while record £15million signing Chadli declined to go on the club’s pre-season boot camp to Austria.
Albion tried to head off questions about Pulis’ own future by extending his contract until 2019 on the eve of the season.
But he soon came under scrutiny again as his team once more struggled for goals and creativity while employing the Welshman’s long-standing pragmatic tactics.
Chadli has played just twice in the top-flight amid injury problems, and Albion have missed arguably their most creative player — who was such a force in their best form last term.
Further injuries to new-boy Oliver Burke, defensive rock Craig Dawson and stalwart James Morrison have affected a small squad, too.
Loanee midfielder Grzegorz Krychowiak, a widely-hailed signing from French goants paris Saint-Germain, has been a huge disappointment.
Pulis usually prides himself on producing a disciplined defence but his experiments with a back-three didn’t work — instead of scoring from set-pieces as they so often do, Albion have ended up conceding from them.
Chelsea’s third goal on Saturday summed up how everything went wrong as Marcos Alonso ghosted in unmarked to score at the back post from Cesc Fabregas’ delivery.
It has all served to turn moans from fans, fuelled by finishing last season with a nine-match winless run, into open dissent.
Pulis wasn’t able to buy his way out of trouble, as the club’s Chinese owners are trying to run Albion profitably like predecessor Jeremy Peace did. But it may prove a false economy if they end up going down.
Famously, Pulis has never been relegated in his entire managerial career. And had he been out of work at the moment, he ironically would look the obvious choice to come in and save West Brom now.
Albion fans may yet discover sometimes you have to be careful what you wish for.