The anger began to rise and then the ground began to empty. As planned, in the symbolic 77th minute, Liverpool fans showed their disgust at the pricing plan for next season's tickets and departed en masse and made their point with force.
Aiming chants of 'You greedy b******s, enough is enough!' at the Directors Box and waving black flags, the anger was justified and the solidarity was worthy. Having felt like they have been taken for granted for too long, charging £77 for some seats next year was the last straw.
So out they went, around 10,000 disaffected souls. The only problem for Liverpool was another walkout followed 13 minutes later. This one was triggered by the concession of two stupid goals to Sunderland and the squandering of two valuable points.
Again there was anger and again it was justified. Liverpool should not have come out of this clash with anything other than a win and all goals from Adam Johnson and Jermain Defoe exposed was how brittle Jurgen Klopp's side are and how fragile the bond is between the team and the Kop.
Without Jurgen Klopp patrolling the touchline – the German was in hospital after having surgery to remove his appendix – Liverpool struggled for long periods though goals from Roberto Firmino and Adam Lallana looked set to provide some solace on a miserable afternoon.
But this is the Liverpool of 2016, a team that has taken five points from the last 18. Erratic, horribly short of quality and lacking identity, not even an appearance in the Capital One Cup final is providing a welcome distraction. It is days such as these that illustrates how much discord there is.
'We have one of the best supporters groups in the world so if they want to make a statement, they have the right to,' said Pepjin Ljinders, Liverpool's first team development coach who was given the task of speaking to the media in Klopp' s absence.
'It changed the atmosphere in the stadium but not in our mentality. We have a group who are young with loads of quality and potential. It is up to us to create a style that gets further and further and over time, you realise winning is a logical result of development.'
There was some truth to what Ljinders said. Yes, the atmosphere changed but the atmosphere did not make substitute Johnson zip in a free-kick or make Mamadou Sakho and Kolo Toure miss tackles in the build up to Defoe's equaliser. Liverpool, simply, are a team with many faults.
To think it was almost two years to the day since Liverpool lit up this stadium with one of the most dynamic, ruthless performances of the modern era, a 5-1 evisceration of Arsenal in which they had raced into a four goal lead within 20 minutes.
When Lallana then tapped in after more good work from Firmino, the game seemed up for Sunderland but then the walk out happened, the mood changed and Liverpool crumbled, Johnson reducing the deficit before Defoe – who finished the game limping – pounced in the 89th minute.
'A bit of quality can always change things,' said Sunderland boss Sam Allardyce, who claimed he did not see the protest as he was 'concentrating' on his team. 'In the last 15 minutes things went into our favour. It didn't look possible when we were 2-0 down.
'It was a strange old game but a very precious point. Liverpool got a bit nervous when we scored but the quality of the second goal from Jermain, I don't think anyone could stop that. I hope he will be ok. He could be our saviour.'
Allardyce is in a good position to say that. Liverpool, after all, are crying out for a saviour of their own.
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