There were reminders all along for Mark Hughes that his return to management would be taking him to a very different kind of place.
His email application to League Two Bradford City was initially lost in the chief executive’s spam folder and every time he leapt to his feet from the dug-out on Saturday, it was into a narrow channel of sand, not a manicured technical area.
The last players he faced as a manager, three years ago, included Manchester United’s Paul Pogba and Marcus Rashford. Here, it was Nigel Clough’s Farrend Rawson and Ryan Stirk.