Liam Fox sounded like a man who knows the Dundee United end game is nigh after their 4-0 battering by relegation rivals Ross County.
The Tangerines travelled north with the aim of picking up three points to lift themselves off the bottom of the Premiership table. But they found themselves 2-0 down inside 15 minutes as some comic cuts defending left them with a mountain to climb. Things only got worse after the break as the Staggies doubled their advantage and in the end, United were lucky County's stopped at four.
The pressure was already on Fox, as well as sporting director Tony Asghar and American chairman Mark Ogren. The latter stuck by the former pair, but will now be expected to wield the axe on the boss with relegation now a real worry for angry fans, 1000 of whom made the trip north and had made their feelings clear during the 90 minutes.
"Listen, it's very soon after the full time whistle, everybody is hugely disappointed, everybody is going to go away and have a wee think and have a look,” Fox told BBC Scotland. “Players, staff, everybody and we'll see where we are over the next couple of days.
“It was absolutely unacceptable. The result and the performance.
“In any game of football, if you don;t turn up and you don’t compete and you don;t run about, you run the risk of a result like that.
“The team is sitting bottom of the table and we’ve had a very, very poor run of results. Confidence is always an issue during runs like that.
“But taking that away and at the risk of repeating myself, if you don;t go out and compete and get the better of your opponent, performances and results like today can happen and that’s unacceptable.
“We conceded the first goal and never looked like we were going to get ourselves back in the game.
“Everybody is hugely frustrated. It’s very soon after the final whistle and we need to take a bit of time to reflect on it.”
BBC Scotland pundit Leeanne Crichton insisted simply admitting it was unacceptable wasn’t enough from Fox. She said: “It’s not enough. I feel for Liam Fox because he sounds like a defeated man.
“He’s struggling to come to terms with the result. I’m sure he didn't set out this week, even in terms of his preparation, whether he's the right man or not.
‘We’ve spoken about recruitment, the position they were in when he took over. He was denied an opportunity to strengthen the squad in the January transfer window so he can only work with the group he's got.
“He wouldn’t have expected a result like that and he finds himself in a position where he must be questioning his own future at the club. Because if that's the performance you get after a week’s work on the training pitch and that’s the reaction from the players, it’s not good enough.
“The fans gong home must be furious. There’s no authority coming out of the club.
“There’s mixed messages. One week Tony Asghar is saying relegation isn’t an issue and they're fighting. Then Mark Ogren says pretty much relegation would be okay because they have a plan to bounce back. The whole club is all over the place.”
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