Dundee United’s players have chatted among themselves and now they need to do their talking on the park.
That was the stark message from Cammy Smith as the Tangerines prepare to play Morton in the league at Tannadice today, just four days after crashing out of the Betfred Cup to the Greenock men.
That 2-1 defeat on Tuesday night has weighed heavily upon United since the full-time whistle, with Smith revealing that the players gathered together more than once to consider where it all went wrong at Cappielow.
Talk is cheap, though, and Smith admits it is time to turn words into action.
Asked whether manager Ray McKinnon was right to deliver a damning verdict in the dressing room after the Morton match, Smith said: “Yes, it was fair because we were poor and lacklustre.
“We shouldn’t need the manager to tell us how poor the game was and we have spoken about it amongst the group of players.
“We have had a few team meetings actually but just because we have spoken about it doesn’t make it right – we need to do everything we can out there on the pitch to put it right.
“What we did say is that Tuesday night wasn’t good enough from us, both in the forward area and the defence.
“It was a poor performance and we didn’t deserve anything from the game.
“We had the chance to get to a Hampden semi-final but blew it.
“We came in the morning after and went over the match on video to try to see where we went wrong.
“It was disappointing but we need to keep the negativity to a minimum and bounce back when we play Morton again.”
Smith believes the Tangerines will click again and hopefully it will be as early as this afternoon.
However, he knows they don’t have too much time on their hands in what is a tough fight in the Championship.
The on-loan Aberdeen man added: “We have ability in that changing room and at times we have played well.
“There has been a big turnover here over the summer so it hasn’t happened for us overnight but our plan and aim is to be up there at the end of the season. That hasn’t changed.
“It is early in the season but we can’t keep saying that. We need to put things right now and get points on the board.
“We have to be bring more consistency to our game over the next few weeks instead of maybe playing well in one in every two games.
“We want back-to-back wins and to go on a good run.
“There are no easy matches, there are hard venues to go to and every team can beat any other, as we saw with Ayr at Hibs the other day. It is definitely not an easy league.”
Smith admitted he would gladly accept any kind of victory against Jim Duffy’s side today.
He said: “Coming to Tannadice, this will be one of the biggest games of the season for them so we need to make it one of the biggest games for us as well.
“They might come and sit in but we need to be ready for whatever approach they take.
“We need to keep knocking at the door until we get that first goal and hope we do enough to get the three points.
“We would take a 1-0 now – it’s the result that is most important.
“We will try to entertain and take the game to Morton as much as we can for the sake of the supporters.
“However, were you to offer me a scrappy, single-goal win now I would take it.”
Smith is appreciative of the support that United have been getting from the stands, especially the hardy bunch of 500 or so who travelled all the way to Greenock in midweek only to watch their team fall flat.
“The fans can get frustrated and I understand that,” he said.
“I have been at games myself where as a fan you want the players to do more.
“However, we are working as hard as we can on the pitch.
“The support was great again on Tuesday, going all that way, and it was disappointing to let them down.
“Hopefully, we can get a victory for both them and the team this time.”
