Dundee United captain Sean Dillon insists you “couldn’t really argue” with the stinging criticism dished out by chairman Stephen Thompson.
Dillon and his teammates were on the receiving end of some brutal words from the boardroom in the wake of Tuesday’s dismal 3-0 defeat at home to Motherwell.
The dressing-down included a warning that the players have 13 league games left in which to “redeem their own professional reputations.”
Dillon, while just staying short of agreeing 100% with the specific contents of Thompson’s statement, said: “I can understand where he is coming from.
“He owns the club and is entitled to his opinion.
“You couldn’t really argue with it.
“Look, factually there wasn’t a whole lot wrong with what he said.
“Like I said, he is entitled to his opinion and if that’s how he feels and he is the owner of the club then that’s OK with him.
“As for us, we know things aren’t good enough and haven’t been good enough.
“The criticism we have received and we have had a lot of criticism from a lot of different people you can’t argue with it because it hasn’t been good enough.
“When somebody is critical of you, regardless of who it is, you need to get on with your job.
“Sometimes the manager will be critical of us. Sometimes we will be critical of ourselves.
“That’s what happens.
“That is what football is about and you have to go through that.
“The bottom line is that you need to get on with it. You need to make sure that you are able to go to training the next day and you work towards winning the next game.”
Dillon, who has the task of leading the team out for today’s home clash with Hearts, was asked if there was a determination among the players to prove to Thompson that they hadn’t accepted that relegation is inevitable.
“Listen, we want to prove everybody wrong,” he said.
“I think at this stage everybody has written us off.
“That’s fair enough, I can understand that.
“As far as we are concerned, though, it’s not over and we will work hard to put it right.
“How do you approach it? You try to win the next game.
“Look, it’s a big ask. The amount of wins that we would need compared to the amount of wins we already have this season shows that.”
Dillon, as United’s most experienced player, is keen to stay calm among the storm engulfing the club.
He added: “Everybody has their own way of approaching things but I think keeping a level head on things is very important.
“Obviously, Tuesday was a blow but it’s important that you don’t get too down and you try to get that message across to everybody else.
“As a player, it affects you but you have to stay on level ground.
“You enjoy the wins but not too much and you don’t let losses affect you much in the same way. So it’s about keeping a level head.”
Staying measured is going to be difficult for some United fans given the state their team is in 13 points adrift at the foot of the Prmiership with just 13 games to go.
There has been talk of protest at today’s match and Dillon appreciates just how difficult it has been for supporters.
He said: “I can understand anybody being upset.
“Without the fans there is no club.
“They are the ones who keep the club going.
“I totally understand why they are upset.
“I am upset and not happy about it and the lads are upset too.
“Everybody show that in different ways and if it’s a protest or not whatever way they want to go about doing it, be it on social media or as a group I totally understand why people are upset.
“What else can you say?
“Having me talk about it isn’t going to help.
“I’m sure people are sick listening to me talking about how hard we are working or what we are trying to do.
“We need to show it and produce points. We need to win games and get ourselves out of this mess.”