Dundee’s American owners have reaffirmed their long-term commitment to the club after the Dark Blues were relegated on Saturday.
Defeat at Dens to Hamilton thanks to a late Tony Andreu penalty sealed their fate and confirmed Jim McIntyre’s side will be playing in the Championship next season.
The result extended the ruinous run of defeats to 10 – equalling a club record for league losses set back in 1898 – to cap what has been a truly disastrous season from start to finish.
The Dark Blues knew they had to win against Accies to maintain their slim hopes of evading the drop but instead, they barely threatened and went down with a whimper.
The defeat signalled the end of Dundee’s five-year tenure in the top flight with the final whistle being greeted with fury from the fans who turned their ire on boss Jim McIntyre and managing director John Nelms.
Last week, Dundee produced a lengthy statement on a wide range of subjects including confirming their continued financial backing for club.
There was though no mention of McIntyre and this latest statement issued on Saturday night once again did not include any direct comment on the manager’s future.
Nelms will fly to the States this week for business meetings – scheduled long before relegation was confirmed – with owner Tim Keyes.
The manager’s position is currently understood to be safe despite his inability to keep Dundee up although that could change following talks between the American duo.
One thing is certain though – Keyes and Nelms remain determined to turn things around at Dundee.
The latest statement included: “Everyone at the club is devastated by this outcome following a very difficult season on the park for Dundee Football Club.
“We would like to confirm again that John Nelms, Tim Keyes and Football Partners Scotland are fully committed to the club.
“The long-term plans FPS have for the club remain in place and they remain optimistic that they will come to fruition.
“As pointed out in the club statement earlier this week, with the season drawing to an end we will hold our annual review and decide what changes need to be made in order to have a successful season on the park in 2019/20.
“We would like to thank every supporter for their backing throughout the season. The dedication even in these testing times has been clear to see and everyone connected with the club is incredibly proud of the fans and grateful to them.”
Meanwhile Dundee’s Martin Woods, who also played under McIntyre at Ross County, hopes the manager is given the chance to bring the Dark Blues straight back up as the Staggies have done this season.
The emotional midfielder, who also suffered the pain of relegation last season at Partick Thistle, said: “We deserve to go down. It’s shocking.
“We deserve to go down because that’s 10 games now. It’s terrible. For a club like this it’s not good enough. We are all accountable.
“Sometimes people hear stuff being shouted and there are a lot of young boys who maybe struggle to take that.
“But that is a learning curve for them going forward. It’s a sore one that’s going to hurt for days.
“There are proud guys in the dressing-room there in tears. It hurts everyone and hurts them bad. The fans the most, of course, but it is so gutting.
“Partick are safe now but had a big struggle. Ross County, on the other hand, got the right players in, stuck with the managers and got themselves back up.
“But I hope to God that the club can do what Ross County has done and not struggle, because it is too big a club and there are a lot of good people here.”
