Under the cover of darkness, a small 'hit squad' from the Dutch football club AFC AJAX slipped into Richmond and switched the Ted Lasso pub sign at The Prince's Head back to The Crown & Anchor, earlier this week.

Throughout Tuesday, locals were forced to blink twice as they passed the popular pub, with the stunt involving a cheeky message being hung on the outside front wall addressed to the AFC Richmond coach, Ted Lasso (Jason Sudeikis).

The clever move was organised by the Eredivisie side just as the next episode of the award-winning series was due to air on Wednesday, with AFC Richmond taking on Ajax in a friendly match in Amsterdam.

The tongue in cheek message on a giant red screen bewildered passers-by but the team of pranksters from Ajax explained the joke.

The message read: "Coach Ted, Greetings from tonight's opponent, AFC Ajax. We know it's just a friendly, but here's a friendly heads-up that we take things might seriously. We know what y'all Richmond folk must be thinking: "Ajax? They think they invented football with their academy and their silverware.

"Fair point. But did you know our clubs are actually pretty dang similar? We both use AFC in our names (which is pretty cool if you ask us, it's like we're part of a secret club or something). Then there's the fact that we both use '020' as our dialing codes… Callincidence? Don't think so! Oh yeah, one more: you believe in believing, and we believe that our belief made us believe too, unbelievable, right?!

"Anyways, here's to a fair fight tonight.

"Oh… And bring your A-Game.

"AFC Ajax."

The tongue in cheek message from AFC Ajax at The Prince's Head

Following Wednesday's airing of the sixth episode in series three, the regular pub sign at The Prince's head has been restored.

The regular pub sign at the popular Richmond pub restored