Will Ferry has pulled no punches in his assessment of Dundee United’s “embarrassing” 3-1 defeat against Hibs.
The capital club took full advantage of some ropey defending by the Tangerines to race into a two-goal lead in the opening 15 minutes on Saturday, with Martin Boyle and Mykola Kuharevich rippling the net.
Kristijan Trapanovski halved arrears after the break, but Dwight Gayle ultimately made the game safe when he converted a free header in the dying embers.
Ferry was visibly irked after United – himself included – failed to do themselves justice in the capital, despite the tantalising opportunity to draw level on points with the Hibees in third place.
“I’m really frustrated – it’s a hard one to take and every other player in the dressing room will have the exact same feeling,” fumed Ferry. “It’s embarrassing to lose and not produce the performance that we’re capable of.
“We’re all p***** off. We’re not going to dwell on it for too long, and I don’t want to sit here and sulk like a kid – because you do lose games. But it’s the manner we did it.
“I say “embarrassing” because we know what we CAN do. Hibs are third and they put on a performance that shows why they’re in the position that they are. We didn’t.”
The bottom line
The defeat was exacerbated by the manner of the goals conceded.
Fresh from shipping five goals against Celtic, United turned in another porous display.
Boyle’s opener came from a scuffed clearance by Declan Gallagher after Chris Cadden was afforded too much space to cross, the second was a simple ball over the top and Gayle’s late header was entirely unopposed in a crowded box.
“We’ll obviously watch the game back properly, but the initial feeling is that they (the first two) are really bad goals,” he added. “We can’t hide from that.
“Even the third one is awful.
“We take pride in our work, and I think you’ve seen that season; how solid we’ve been, defensively. We’ve won games late because we’ve always stuck together. But we didn’t show that against Hibs.
“There was a little 15-20 minutes in the second half where we had a few bright moments, but 20 minutes is nowhere near enough in a 90-minute game. We need to produce a better performance against St Mirren. That’s the bottom line.”
Ferry added: “The fans came through and really backed us. I can only apologise for what we produced, especially in the first half.”
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