Dundee United suffered a hat-trick of woe as their league slump continued with defeat at bottom club St Mirren on Wednesday night.
First there was the obvious blow of the 3-2 defeat leaving them in fourth place, 10 points behind Championship leaders Hibs and staring the prospect of a six-game play-off campaign in the face if they are to get back up to the Premiership.
Second was the news midfielder Scott Fraser almost certainly broke his foot during the Paisley debacle, meaning there’s every chance his season is over.
And, third, skipper Sean Dillon has been left doubtful for his own testimonial next week after he went over his ankle in the second half and left the Paisley 2021 Stadium on crutches.
Addressing the result and performance, manager Ray McKinnon has made clear it was totally unacceptable.
Last night he locked his players in the away dressing-room for 40 minutes to tell them so.
“Our players have to do better than that,” said McKinnon.
“We set standards and that was disappointing for those standards we set.
“You need to question how players can get to a high level and then drop to that level.
“There was a long discussion after the final whistle and there needed to be. People are playing for contracts and they have to be better than that.
“We shot ourselves in the foot by losing bad goals in the first half and, even when we had a lot of pressure in the second, there was no real control.
“That’s what happens when you have to chase a game.”
Turning to the injuries, Ray admitted things didn’t look good for either Fraser or Dillon.
The midfielder had to come off before half-time when he damaged the top of his foot in a tackle with home defender Gary Irvine.
And although Dillon finished the 90 minutes because his ankle injury came after all three subs had been used, he was hobbling by the end and on crutches as he boarded the bus home.
“It looks like Scott has broken his foot and Dillo has a bad one as well,” confirmed Ray.
“It looks like he won’t be walking at his testimonial, so there’s a couple of injuries there as well for us to worry about.”
Neither have any chance of making Saturday’s trip to Raith Rovers and long-term absentee Blair Spittal will still be missing for that one as well.
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