Down and out the door: Laszlo and Dundee United part company after 5-1 hammering.

Sorry display results in players shamefully holding on to 5-1 defeat

DUNDEE UNITED 1 ROSS COUNTY 5

As Csaba Laszlo took the stroll of shame from dugout to tunnel, he could hear the lyrics of Don’t Look Back In Anger belting out.

Use a little imagination and Oasis could have been singing: “So Csaba can wait, he knows it’s too late as he’s walking on by.”

This had the look and feel of a farewell game for the extremely personable and friendly Hungarian, and so it proved.

You really wanted this gentleman of a manager to succeed.

For everyone’s sake – his own, that of chairman Mike Martin and the board, the players and, above all, the fans – there was a sincere desire to see a smiling Lazlo celebrate with his promotion-winning side at the end of this season.

It won’t happen, though.

This 5-1 hammering at the hands of Ross County saw to that.

It is game over for Laszlo and no United manager should have realistic ally expected to survive a humiliation like the one the team suffered on Saturday.

The long-suffering supporters had seen enough and some shouted for him to “get tae f***” at half-time, during the game and at full-time.

The defending was disastrous and goalkeeper Matej Rakovan didn’t help ease the jitters with some awful mistakes that cost goals.

The discipline went as well, with substitute Stewart Murdoch shown a straight red card for a stamp on County’s Jamie Lindsay after being on the park for just three minutes.

They then settled for 5-1. It’s worth repeating that last bit. The players actually sat in and hung on for 5-1. That is a disgrace in itself.

If the Tangerines are to mount any kind of promotion challenge in this their third season in the Championship then, postLaszlo, the club must be transformed.

The supporters are being shortchanged, especially at home but some stayed in their seats even as the goals rained down on their team so they could boo Laszlo and the players at the fulltime whistle.

Things had looked reasonably promising going into the game, too, and the Tangerines kept the same starting line-up that kicked off the away win at Falkirk.

That meant the four players returning from injury – Fraser Fyvie, Billy King, Sam Stanton and Murdoch – had to make do with places of the bench.

United also should have been ahead after just 50 seconds.

Yannick Loemba found himself in the clear inside the box with only County keeper Scott Fox to beat but he hesitated before hitting the goalie with his shot.

Having escaped that one, the Highlanders took the lead on 11 minutes.

With the United players sleeping at a County free-kick on the right, Josh Mullin played a cross into the goalmouth and it was helped over the line by former Tangerines striker Billy Mckay’s groin.

United, though, pulled themselves level on 17 minutes.

Pavol Safranko was the scorer with a fine left-footed volley from the centre of the box after he was found by Fraser Aird’s looping cross.

It was 2-1 County on 29 minutes, though, and it was a double for Mckay, who slammed home the ball after United keeper Rakovan punched Mullin’s cross straight to him.

United’s bad defending got absolutely terrible on 42 minutes when the Staggies grabbed their third.

It was a free-kick on the right taken by Sean Kelly and his cross was allowed to travel untouched through the invisible Rakovan and into the net. It was arguably one of the worst goals the Tangerines have lost for years and there have been a few contenders.

They conceded yet another dreadful goal on 50 minutes, the loss of which brought on even louder chants of “Laszlo, Laszlo get tae f***” from several supporters. Mckay appeared to handle in the build-up but he carried on and played the ball over to Mullin, who slid the ball home.

Just two minutes later it was 5-1 to the Staggies and it was almost a carbon copy of the fourth goal as Mckay grabbed his hat-trick after being fed by Mullin this time.

On 59 minutes, it went from horrendous to utterly ridiculous for United when Murdoch, who had just come off the bench three minutes earlier, was shown a straight red card for his stamp on County’s Jamie Lindsay.

With the game – and all hope – gone, the rest of the match was a training exercise for the Staggies.

It was left to central defender Frederic Frans, in his role as captain, to explain what went wrong.

To his credit he was quick to issue an apology.

Frans said: “What can you say but sorry.

“I know it’s cheap to say sorry but there are no excuses other than sorry.

“In think in this situation people should look at themselves.

“I feel embarrassed.”

Frans was then asked why they seemed to give up after Murdoch’s red card just before the hour.

He replied: “OK but as a defender you take 5-1 and go down to 10 men – what more do you want to happen?

“Do you want to concede another two or three goals?

“Let’s be honest, there comes a moment when you want to close the ranks. We still tried, yeah, but we didn’t want to concede more.”

So there you have it. A Dundee United team at Tannadice hanging on desperately to a 5-1 defeat.

As Oasis also sang: “Back beat, the word is on the street that the fire in your heart is out.”

Here’s hoping the new manager can relight the flame.

Picture: SNS. Former United player Billy Mckay celebrates with his team-mates.