No way for Queens to behave...
I was sacked 15 minutes before giving speech at club awards night, says Naysmith The chairman and board all live in Dumfries, yet didn’t have courtesy to tell me face to face
WHEN it comes to Queen of the South’s survival in the Championship, Gary Naysmith plans to be the bigger man. By his own admission, it’s not always easy.
At the end of January, the Dumfries side were challenging for the promotion play-offs and in the last 16 of the Scottish Cup. The former Scotland full-back was voted the SPFL Championship Manager of the Month.
All of which made the circumstances of his sacking two weeks ago a brutal business.
Hours after a 3-0 loss to struggling Partick Thistle condemned the injury-hit Doonhamers to the relegation play-off position, Naysmith was preparing to address fans at the annual Player of the Year dance at Palmerston when he received a text from chairman Billy Hewitson.
Discussing the bizarre circumstances of his sacking for the first time, Naysmith tells
Sportsmail: ‘After the last home game of the season at Queen of the South you go round two or three supporters clubs to meet fans.
‘I did two and the main function this year was being held at the stadium. I went back to the club, went upstairs to watch awards being presented to the players and normally I get up and say a little bit about the way the season has gone.
‘But then came a text from the chairman asking if I could call him when I was on my own.
‘It was 15 minutes before the award presentations to players started so I went down to my office and called him.
‘He broke the news to me over the phone I was losing my job.
‘That’s the bit that really annoys me. The chairman and all the board live in Dumfries. I don’t.
‘And to be in Dumfries and not even be granted the courtesy of being told face to face that I was losing my job leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
‘If we’d beaten Partick Thistle, we’d have finished sixth. We played poorly, but for the chairman not to come and tell me face to face is not how I work.’
When the numbness subsided, the former Hearts and Everton defender sent a message to the board thanking them for the opportunity. It took time for the
shock and disbelief to be replaced by something else. Anger.
Speaking as Queens prepare to face Raith Rovers in the first leg of the Championship play-off final tonight, Naysmith is blunt.
‘I’ll be honest, a lot of people close to me don’t want Queen of the South to beat Raith because of the way I was treated,’ he admits.
‘I want to rise above that. I want the club and those players and those people behind the scenes to stay in the Championship, I honestly do.’
It’s hard to be so magnanimous when it comes to the action of his former chairman.
After beating Dundee in the Scottish Cup on January 29, Naysmith’s side lost seven games on the bounce. Yet entering that fateful final game against Thistle, they knew victory would earn a top-six finish for the third straight season.
In the most cut-throat league in years, budget cuts, untimely injuries to the prolific Stephen Dobbie and a squad pared to the bone combined to whip up the perfect storm.
The performance and result against Partick was instantly forgettable. The stain caused by a shoddy sacking by telephone will take time to shift.
‘I phoned my wife then pulled my staff down to my office and told them,’ he continues.
‘I asked them to get all the players down to the changing room and told them. There was anger, I don’t mind saying that. It was a wee bit emotional.
‘I had a great relationship with all the players and when the club released a short statement of eight lines or something I felt it was only right to go up and speak to the fans. That was hard, but it was harder to get the words out to the players.
‘There was a gentleman’s agreement that if we were in the Championship next season I would be the manager and that was taken away from me, as well.
‘I spoke to the chairman about extending my deal and it dragged on for two or three different reasons.
‘Some of it was down to me because I knew the budget was going to be lower the next season and we were struggling due to a lack of bodies.
‘It wasn’t good enough in the end, I hold my hands up. But if we had beaten Partick Thistle in that last game we would have finished sixth again.
‘It was the first real bad run I had experienced. It was a slow upward curve until we got to the end of January.
‘Until that date, I had never lost three league games in a row in two and a half years.’
Lured from East Fife by the promise of full-time football in Dumfries, Naysmith stumbled upon a humbling reality.
As well as manager, he served as video analyst, conditioning coach and sports scientist. Players travelled to most of the away games in their own cars, washed their own kit and fed themselves after training.
Discreet enquiries revealed a budget close to the lowest in the league.
‘Listen, results weren’t great at the end,’ he says. ‘There were injuries, some bad luck and I made a few bad decisions. But I never saw the sack coming.
‘And the way it was done just didn’t sit right with me.
‘I never received a warning or anything. No one said: “You need to win this game”. There was absolutely nothing.’
Relegated Dundee are currently in the market for a manager after sacking Jim McIntyre.
‘I’m only 40 and I’ve been a manager for 250 games now,’ adds Naymsith. ‘Derek McInnes was on the phone to me for a good 30 or 40 minutes and he gave me good advice.
‘I’m positive about my experiences. And despite everything that happened, I want Queen of the South to stay up.’