McGowan blasts Dees after disaster
PAUL McGOWAN last night launched a blistering, X- rated attack on his own team.
He blasted Dundee “weak” and “embarrassing” after Friday night’s shambolic 7-0 loss to Aberdeen, the Dark Blues’ heaviest home defeat since an 8-1 loss to Jock Stein’s Celtic in 1971.
McGowan’s message was as honest as his language was – at times, industrial.
The midfielder admitted he and his team- mates are now in a relegation battle, and conceded they have been gutless and clueless.
In a no- holds- barred interview, McGowan lashed out after he had been part of the Dees’ biggest-ever defeat to the Dons. “Where do you start?” he said. “It’s embarrassing. We’ve embarrassed ourselves, we’ve embarrassed the club, we’ve embarrassed the fans.
“It’s indefensible. Right throughout the team, every one of us should take a hard look at ourselves in the mirror because that was not acceptable.
“It’s probably the worst I’ve been involved in. It will hurt for a long time.
“We’re actually kidding ourselves on just now.
“In training, we try to pass the ball, everybody wants it. Then when we go to a game, nobody’s there. It’s as if we’re hiding.
“Look at the goals we lost on Friday – six from crosses into the box and you’ve got a leftback ( Aberdeen’s Andy Considine) scoring a hat-trick!
“Fair play to him, he had a great game. But when a left-back is scoring a hat- trick, you know you’ve got serious issues.
“The goals that we concede are an absolute embarrassment, right through the team. From strikers, through the midfield, to defenders – right through the team, every one of us is weak. That’s the only way I can sum it up.
“Mentally weak. When the going gets tough we’ve got nothing about us.
“You might think I’m being harsh but it’s a harsh reality. This is a dogfight.
“Teams will be looking at us now and thinking: ‘They’re gone. 7-0 at home.’
“We work all week on how to stop Aberdeen, then go and put in a performance like that.
“The manager can’t do anything about that. It’s simply the players. Every one of us.
“It’s unacceptable to go out there and perform like we did in a game of football.
“That happens in a Sunday league game – it shouldn’t happen in this league.
“I honestly don’t know if we’ve got the guts to get out of the situation we’re in. That’s the scary thing. “You can shout, you can scream as loud as you want. But at the end of the day, if it’s not in there, it’s not there.”
Just six weeks ago, Dundee turned in the performance of their season to defeat Rangers 2-1 at Dens Park.
Against Aberdeen, they looked like a totally different team – and a much, much worse one.
For McGowan, that is why they ought to forget about a top-six finish.
“That is us in a nutshell. We perform one week, we’re useless the next,” he blasted. “That’s just our season. It’s so up and down, there’s no consistency, and it’s so frustrating.
“We’re in trouble now, of course we are, there’s no getting away from it.
“If people think we’re alright, they’re talking rubbish. We’re definitely in trouble.
“Forget about the top six. I’m sick of hearing about the top six. The way we’ve been playing, we haven’t been good enough. That’s the bottom line.
“We don’t deserve to be in the top six the way we’re playing.”
The Dark Blues have a chance to put their drubbing by the Dons behind them against Ross County on Tuesday. Another defeat is unthinkable. But with the weight of Friday night’s embarrassment weighing heavily, McGowan admits it isn’t unimaginable.
He admitted: “It’s going to be very hard to get the heads back up. That will take a lot out of the confidence.
“As soon as we go a goal down, we crumble. You can look at the Rangers game, yeah, brilliant, plaudits. The Celtic game, 2-1, we’re saying we did alright.
“Did we? I don’t think we did. It’s only when we went 2-0 down against Celtic, we started to play.
“We’re so up and down and it’s mentally draining.
“I just feel for everybody connected to the club. They will be wanting blood.
“At the end of the day, it’s the players who should be taking all the stick.
“Ultimately we go out on that pitch and get paid to perform – and that was unacceptable.”