Jim Goodwin was “humiliated” by Aberdeen’s 5-0 thumping to Hearts at Tynecastle and admits he can't get his head around how bad his team were.
Without even playing that well, Robbie Neilson’s men found themselves 4-0 up at the break, seemingly torpedoing their opponents’ hopes of catching them in third place in less than 45 minutes. Josh Ginnelly’s opener was followed up by a final strike by Michael Smith. Liam Scales’ handball allowed Lawrence Shankland to net from the spot before setting up Ginnelly’s second and Hearts' fourth just before the interval. Cammy Devlin made it five in the second half and it could have been worse for the Dons, who had a late consolation from Marley Watkins chalked off after a VAR check.
“I’m extremely embarrassed by the scoreline,” said Goodwin. “I know the players will be feeling the same. We’ve let everyone down again and that's the bottom line.
"It's on me at the end of the day. I’m the manager of the team. They're my players and Ivve brought the majority of them to the club.
“I think they’re good players and there’s a lot of good players in that dressing room. For whatever reason tonight, we just didn't defend as well as we need to against a very good Hearts team], who have a ruthless streak in front of goal.
“It’s an extremely difficult one and I certainly didn’t see it coming off the back of a very good performance on Sunday. I’m not a beaten man and I’ll never chuck the towel in. It’s not a time for me to talk about positives.
“I don't think my players threw the towel in in the second half but nobody wants to hear that. We’ve lost 5-0 and it's a humiliating defeat for me, my players and the rest of the club. I’m extremely embarrassed right now and that’s where we’re at. I’ll turn up for my work in the morning and we'll try and put things right.”
Goodwin was out of the away dressing room swiftly. And he admitted there was little sense in reading his men the riot act.
“What can I say now? What’s the point?” he told BBC Scotland. “The talking needs to be done on the pitch. We can do all the work we want to do in training and all the analysis that we do. Hearts haven’t surprised us here tonight. They played exactly the way we thought they would.
“I don’t really know how I’m standing here on the back of a 5-0 defeat. I really can't get my head around it. We didn’t defend well enough. That’s the bottom line.
“We got into good areas going forward, but nobody wants to hear that. At the end of the day I'm standing here after my team losing 5-0 so I can talk about this, that and the other but situations defensively, we’ve not dealt with well enough. That’s why our goals against column is as bad as it is.”
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