The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Hartley brands Dens display as ‘shambolic’
Dundee boss Paul Hartley took over an hour to “gather his thoughts” last night before slamming his players after their 7-0 defeat to Aberdeen.
The Dark Blues were absolutely thrashed by the Dons and it was an abject performance in front of their own fans.
Hartley didn’t hold back, branding the display as “shambolic” and admitting that they are now right in the thick of a relegation battle.
He said: “I have had to gather my thoughts there and try to run through the game and explain where that performance came from. I still can’t quite believe that performance. It was so bad. As a manager you can’t see that coming.
“We worked all week on stopping crosses coming into the box because we know Aberdeen’s strengths, getting the ball into the box and using their quality.
“But we couldn’t stop the crosses or defend them. People didn’t do their jobs.
“It wasn’t just the back four, by the way, it was the whole unit. The players should be looking themselves in the mirror when they get home tonight.
“We are in for a real battle now with eight games to go and they need to show their strength of character and mental side of things more than anything.
“The overall performance was shambolic. There was a total acceptance by the team tonight.
“Aberdeen are a good team with real quality but we made it easy for them. “We were just so poor. “So I spoke to the staff after the game and we asked ourselves if we prepared the team properly and we thought: ‘Yes, we did.’ I think the players now need to take responsibility.
“We have to make sure we are up for the fight for the last eight games and the next one is the most important, against Ross County (away on Tuesday).
“The whole team has to make sure we fight because you can never say you are too good to go down – that’s nonsense.
“We wanted to get into the top six but we know we are in a battle.”
Delighted Dons boss Derek McInnes said: “We came here hoping to carry on where we left off (before the international break) but we didn’t expect that.”