The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Lowest I’ve felt at Dens –
Dundee midfielder Pa u l Mc G o w a n has unleashed an astonishing blast at the Dark Blues squad af ter their dismal 2-0 defeat at Ayr United.
The 33 - year- old took aim at his fellow players for their form this season and d i d n’ t spare his own per formances from criticism.
The Dens Park club sit in seventh spot in the Champ ionsh ip after winning just one of their five games this campaign and have conceded 15 goals in their last four away matches.
After being asked for his thoughts on the game, post-match Mc G o w a n unloaded his frustrations in a five-minute long rant.
He said: “Where do you start? I’m not going to sit here and trot out all the clichés – it was s*** e basically.
“To concede a goal after two minutes, what chance are we giving ourselves?
“We work tirelessly all week, the manager works tirelessly, and then we lose a goal within two minutes. Goals change games.
“Every one of us needs to take a good hard look at ourselves because not one of us deserves to be in that team. Maybe wee Maxy (Anderson), who did well.
“Listen, there are a lot of passengers in this team. I’m not just singling out other people, I include myself in that.
“We are just happy to go training and then turn up on a Saturday and it’s always ‘somebody else do something’. But in training it’s like three, four, five players wanting the ball and all knocking it about but we go there and start humping it long.
“It’s horrible, I wouldn’t even pay to watch that – that’s not what we are doing during the week.
“It’s like we get a pure nervousness in our game. Honest to God…
“No wonder the manager is racking his brains and banging his head off a wall. He can’t physically go on and shake players on the pitch, move them into positions.
“We are grown men and have been playing the game for how long? We need to take accountability for our actions – me included.
“It’s not good enough. Ayr deserved that, let’s not beat about the bush. Alloa, we went 3-1 down, and it’s criminal what we’re giving teams. At Hibs, I thought we played well until we equalised, we think we’re back in the game and then boom, we lose three goals in six minutes.
“It’s not even are cutting us like teams open. It’s pathe tic goals we are losing. I’ve been at this club for seven years now and this is probably the lowest I have felt, even when we got relegated.
“In training and matches we are two totally different teams.
“We are kidding ourselves on that any one of us can look ourselves in the mirror and say we did well, we are kidding ourselves on big time.
“We ’re letting the manager down, we’r e letting the club down and letting the fans down. They’ll give us abuse and rightly so, we deserve it.
“We aren ’ t do ing ourselves justice.
“A few words got said after the game and that’s what we need. We need characters in the team. I’m getting older but it’s like you have to f *****g shake p l ay e r s now to get a reaction. People say I moan and shout but I wish we had more of it. I’m not saying that’s the difference but I wish we had players running about talking all the time but we are f *****g mutes on the pitch. It’s two or three players all the time, the same ones.
“If I’m having a bad game, I’m still helping somebody else out. There’s not enough of that. Not enough characters in the team. We are letting the club down.
“You can say about the coronavirus where we’ve had some injuries but that’s no excuse. We’ve still got a good team there. I say, good team…
“We’ve still got a strongenough team to put out there and do the business but we are not doing it.
“We need to take all the criticism that comes. Nobody has a leg to stand on.
“Nobody can disagree because, at this moment in time, we are verging on ridiculous the goals we are conceding as a team.
“I didn’t even want to do the press but I got nominated. I’m hurting.
“We need to roll our sleeves up and I’m not going to say a load of s***e about going to the next game because we need a hard look at ourselves because that’s not good enough.”
We’re letting the manager down, we’re letting the club down and letting the fans down