Sir Kenny Patterson now has to show some remorse
Sometimes getting a wee fright at an early age isn’t a bad thing
Micky Mellon believes it’s proving hard for his Dundee United players to live up to the club’s history.
The Tannadice outfit are still in with a fighting chance of making the top six in their first season after being promoted from the Championship.
That i s n’t seen as good enough by some observers, and the manager reckons that’s unfair on his men.
Mellon said: “I’m not going to name any teams in the Championship, but if we were called something d i f f e re n t , people would be talking about us very differently.
“We wouldn’t be judged as a club with the history of Dundee United, just as a team who’d come out of the Championship and did very well.
“But I embraced that. I came back to Scotland because I wanted to work for a big club.
“You sit down as a manager, and ask what external questions will be asked of you.
“One that I absolutely understood was that we’d be perceived as a massive club in Scotland.
“Our history would go side by side with that – and we’d be judged on it. We’re a club with a big fanbase and demands.
“I don’t mind that. I can focus on knowing what’s necessary to get us to those places. I’ve done it many times before.
“I’ve got to work hard with players to get to a level that satisfies the size of the club.
“Just coming out of the Championship, that’s not going to happen overnight. I knew that.
“I’d rather be working for a big club like Dundee United. I’d rather have the asks and expectations.
“I enjoy that – as long as it’s fair. Sometimes I don’t think it’s been fair this season.
“As well as the criticism and feedback you get from people, you need a pat on the back now and again.
“We all do. Sometimes you need someone to say: ‘ You’re doing well. You’re doing OK’.
“I don’t think the boys have had enough of that.
“We’re not big softies, but they probably deserve a bit more credit.
“We have to find the consistency to move us towards the Dundee United that everybody probably expects.”
United will attempt to maintain their top-six bid today against a defence that has only conceded one goal at home this season.
Connor Goldson has been a huge part of this impressive defensive re c o rd , a n d Me l l o n recalled: “I had him for about two- and- a- half years at Shrewsbury.
“He was only young, but you could tell he had the mentality that he was going to make himself the best version of what he was able to do.
“I’m not surpr ised that h e’s carried on because he has the right mentality, and he has a good family around him.
“He was captain for us at an early age. He’s a good player and good lad.
“He’ll get the most out of himself, and go on to have even more of a career.”
Carl Tremarco is only half- joking when he likens the manager he shared his greatest career high with to an asylum inmate!
The Liverpudlian left- back knows better than most there is method behind the madness with John Hughes.
Tremarco was part of the great Caley Thistle side “Yogi” steered to Scottish Cup final glory and into Europe after a heady third-place finish in the Premiership in 2015.
That remarkable spell in Inverness saw Hughes rip up the more direct style of predecessor, Terry Butcher, and implement a slick- passing identity few had felt was possible at the club.
Behind it all, Tremarco recalls, was excellence on the training ground.
And it has all come flooding back to the veteran since Hughes replaced the sacked Stuart Kettlewell in late November.
The expertise remains – and so does the streak of madness.
Tremarco said: “Has the manager changed much? No, he’s still crazy. He’s a lunatic! He’s the same character as he was at Inverness.
“As a coach and manager, he’s just great. He opened my eyes to a whole new way of playing the game when he came to Inverness, and it was refreshing.
“For me, Ross Draper, Iain Vigurs and Billy Mckay, who were all there with him at Inverness, he is asking us to do things on the training pitch where we know what he wants.
“That means if anyone isn’t getting it, we can help the other players, and put our arm around one of them and say: ‘ This is what he wants’.
“He needs more time to embed what he wants to do, and it’s coming slowly and surely. But, right now, we need results.”
A few players from Caley Thistle’s Scottish Cup-winning side moved on to greater things in the aftermath, with Graeme Shinnie hitting heights at Aberdeen, and now in England.
For the youthful Ryan Christie, now a Celtic and Scotland mainstay, it was also a springboard.
Tremarco saw Hughes bring the best out of Christie as a raw, developing talent, and believes the story could end with a move to an elite club in England.
The 35-year-old said: “You could see right away that Ryan was a good player.
“So it was only a matter of time before he broke through, and then a bigger club came for him.
“With John Hughes’ contacts, Celtic was probably the only club he would have moved to.
“The gaffer also managed him well, and it’s no surprise to see what he has since gone on to achieve – and I’m sure he’s going to kick on again.
“If you look at other players who have gone down the road to England, like Stuart Armstrong, they have done pretty well.
“So hopefully, for Ryan’s sake, some manager will give him a chance.”