Crestfallen Jack Ross has been sacked as Dundee United boss with Sunday's 9-0 shellacking at the hands of Celtic proving the final straw.
The Tayside club confirmed in a statement: "Dundee United can confirm head coach Jack Ross has been relieved of his duties with immediate effect. Liam Fox will take charge of the first team on an interim basis with the focus now fully on Wednesday’s Premier Sports Cup match with Livingston."
The former Hibs and Sunderland boss is out at Tannadice after a nightmare run, with his side's stirring first leg win over AZ Alkmaar in Europa Conference League qualifying proving an outlier amid a run of rotten results. The 7-0 trouncing away to the Eredivise side was a gut punch, but worse has followed since with Hearts and St Mirren netting seven between them over the past two weekends.
But the nightmare was ramped up a notch as Premiership champions Celtic ripped them to shreds on Sunday. The anger was palpable from the stands with a stream of punters heading for the exits at the interval with their side trailing 4-0 to Ange Postecoglou's side. Ross quipped on radio in the immediate aftermath of their first leg win over Alkmaar he should quit when the going was good – unaware of the woe that was coming his way in the weeks that would follow a famous night under the lights.
Ross tried shock tactics before the game against the Premiership champions with a host of senior stars such as Tony Watt and Charlie Mulgrew starting on the bench. But the youth movement could barely contain the visitors as both Kyogo and Liel Abada netted hat-tricks.
It heaped on the misery for Terrors' fans who have now watched their team ship 24 goals since their 1-0 win over Alkmaar and they are sinking like a stone in the Premiership. They sit bottom of the table after five games and already look in serious bother at the wrong end of the table.
Now Dundee United owner Mark Ogren and club chief Tony Asghar are on the hunt for a new boss months after they plumped for Ross as Tam Courts' successor. United now face a real fight to arrest the recent run which has them at the bottom of the table with a host of problems to remedy.
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