Dreadful Abysmal Tangerines are well and truly spanked by Bairns

PLAYERRATINGS

UNACCEPTABLE was the word on everybody of a tangerine persuasion’s lips as Dundee United were thrashed 6-1 by Falkirk on Saturday.

And rightly so, because what was served up at the Falkirk Stadium has to rank among one of the worse United performances almost in living memory.

They lay down to the Bairns in a way that must not and cannot be tolerated and it was clear from manager Csaba Laszlo’s furious reaction to this defeat that he will not be accepting it.

As Laszlo himself pointed out at an emotional aftermatch Press conference, in 90 horrific minutes all the notinconsiderable good work put in since his arrival in November was undone.

From today in training it will be about starting again from scratch and showing a team that was once favourites for promotion is indeed in the running to go up.

This hammering saw them drop six points behind leaders St Mirren and, although United do have a game in hand, after a display as abysmal as this that they will take the points from it cannot be taken for granted.

If they keep playing like this they certainly won’t be winning too many games.

Because if 6-1 is a humiliating score, the harsh truth is things could have been worse. Much worse.

Don’t be fooled by the fact United actually took an early lead through Billy King, at no point did they have anything approaching control of the proceedings.

Despite that perfect start, by the break they were lucky to be only 2-1 down. The home side having dominated, they hit the post and bar as well as missing several other good opportunities.

So it continued after the break — Falkirk mounted attack after attack and from most of them threatened to score. Another four chances were converted and in the end United were lucky this defeat was not closer to double figures.

Credit, of course, should go to the Bairns. Despite a miserable season up until Saturday, it was never in doubt that there was talent in this squad.

After all they have reached the playoffs in each of the past two seasons and were rightly expected to be riding high this term and not, as they are, battling against relegation.

And for all their troubles, had the Bairns won this game it would not have been a massive shock. What was, was the nature of the win.

Once things started to go wrong, collectively United crumbled. Not one player on the pitch could claim to muster anything close to pass marks.

Excused to some extent could be new signings Craig Slater, Brandon Mason and Emil Lyng, all of whom must have been left wondering what they’d let themselves in for.

Slater and Mason were in the starting line-up and, while they can’t have been happy with their own performances, making a debut when those around you were playing so poorly must have been the proverbial nightmare.

Likewise, by the time striker Lyng came off the bench this game was long gone. That made his time on the pitch no more than a fitness exercise for the big Dane.

That was maybe the only positive United could take from their worst Saturday in a long time and that is definitely unacceptable.