Furious Dundee United fans demanded change during a chastening 4-0 defeat against Ross County.
A vociferous majority of the travelling 937-strong United support called for head coach Liam Fox and sporting director Tony Asghar to go as the Highlanders romped to a comprehensive win in this drop-zone six-pointer.
Fox’s position, in particular, must come into sharp focus following a sixth successive defeat in all competitions.
The Tangerines are winless in their last eight Premiership matches and, despite facing the likes of Kilmarnock, St Johnstone and County — a supposedly winnable run of games — they show little sign of arresting the decline.
United are now four points adrift at the bottom of the league.
Watching owner Mark Ogren, due to jet back to the USA after this weekend, has ample food for thought prior to getting on that flight.
Big decision
Fox had a huge call to make between the sticks.
Mark Birighitti, fit again, but fresh from a catastrophic blunder against St Johnstone; one of several disappointing showings for United.
Or Jack Newman, just 20 years of age, yet to start a game for the Tangerines and entirely untested.
Presented with two imperfect options, Fox opted for the rookie in the heat of a relegation battle — surely the death knell for Birighitti’s United career.
His only other change saw Ryan Edwards come in for Loick Ayina, while Glenn Middleton was a startling selection on the bench — mere days after being seemingly ruled out for at least a month due to a hamstring issue.
Nightmare start
Following the concession of a catastrophic goal against St Johnstone last week, precedence should have been given to keeping it tight and ensuring there were no more defensive calamities.
That lasted seven minutes.
A long ball was punted down the channel, prompting Newman to dash 30 yards out of his goal-mouth to intercept. Ryan Edwards and Charlie Mulgrew also converged on the ball — who knows whether there was a shout — and collided with the young keeper.
That allowed Brophy to score from an exceptionally prohibitive angle; a very good finish.
A new low
What followed could reasonably be considered a new nadir for United. Yes, they shipped seven and nine against AZ Alkmaar and Celtic, respectively, but both of those teams are formidable and, on their day, would rip most Scottish sides asunder.
However, for the majority of this contest, against a similarly toiling County side, they made daft errors; didn’t get tight to opponents; didn’t make proactive passes. Only one set of players seemed to grasp — or could handle — the gravity of this contest.
Brophy smacked the post from the edge of the box as the visitors wobbled.
Dhanda was then given far too much space on the edge of the box to collect a loose ball and fire another fine drive beyond the grasp of Newman.
By this point, there was a constant stream of chanting for both Asghar and Fox to “get to ****” emanating from the away end.
County struck the post again after Jack Baldwin was allowed an uncontested free header inside the box.
United could feasibly have been 4-0 down after half-an-hour. Unacceptable.
Bad to worse
If the second period was test of United’s mettle and Fox’s ability to spark a comeback, they failed on both counts.
Newman produced a fantastic finger-tip save to deny a fizzing Gwion Edwards shot, while White thought he had made it 3-0 when he headed home following an ugly penalty-box stramash.
However, the offside flag saved United and, following an interminable VAR check, that call was upheld.
But the big marksman would not be denied. Brophy turned provider, dashing down the left before producing an outstanding delivery, allowing the woefully unmarked White to bullet a header past Newman.
Chants of “sacked in the morning” were aimed at the beleaguered Fox — from the section housing the travelling Arabs.
Underlining the importance of strengthening their attacking pool in January, the outstanding Brophy made it 4-0 when he raced onto a lofted pass and smashed a wonderful drive past the shellshocked Newman.
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