Dundee’s 6-0 humiliation at home to Hearts was “self-inflicted” says manager Tony Docherty.
The Dark Blues boss cancelled Sunday off for the players and apologised to the home support after sitting through the biggest home defeat of his tenure.
Early goals from Lawrence Shankland and Blair Spittal put the Jambos two up at the break before the home side fell apart in the second period.
Elton Kabangu notched twice and defensive errors gifted goals to Musa Drammeh and Kenneth Vargas.
“I never saw that coming,” Docherty said.
“All the criticism that will come is justified, it was a really bad day.
“I apologise to Dundee fans for that level of performance.
“Everyone has to take responsibility, as manager I have to take responsibility as well.
“That level of performance was unacceptable today.
“Goals drain confidence and losing the goals we did affected the confidence of the team.
“The goals we lost were so poor, especially the first two.
“It’s important we’re in tomorrow to analyse the performance of the team because so much of it was self-inflicted.
“Hearts caught us on a really bad day.”
Six of the worst
Lawrence Shankland was back in the Hearts XI and he was back tormenting Dundee.
The Scotland striker opened the scoring on 15 minutes, set up the third with a super throughball and proved a menace all afternoon.
A two-minute first-half double had the Jambos in control as Spittal fired into the top corner on 17 minutes.
But after the break the Dark Blues crumbled.
First they were caught piling forward as Shankland played Kabangu into acres of space. The Belgian left Clark Robertson trailing and finished easily.
If it wasn’t for Carson the scoreline could easily have been worse for Dundee but the goalie won’t want to see goal No 4 as he dropped a simple cross to gift Drammeh the easiest of finishes.
The last two came from poor defending as a corner got through the front post too easily and Kabangu smashed in for 5-0.
And the final goal saw Clark Robertson pass straight to Alan Forrest before the winger played in Kenneth Vargas for an easy sixth.
‘Face up to it’
Asked what the mood in the dressing-room was like, Docherty replied: “As you can imagine, nobody enjoys performances like that.
“The players feel they let themselves down and the supporters down.
“You have to remember as well, though, you don’t become a bad team overnight.
“But the performance level can’t drop as dramatically as it did today and we have to take responsibility for that.
“There has to be an honesty, you have to face up to it and try to do all you can in your power to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Dundee’s next match is away to champions Celtic on Wednesday.
This defeat dropped them down to 10th place in the Premiership table as Hearts moved up to seventh.
Teams
Dundee: Carson, Astley, C Robertson, Donnelly, Samuels (F Robertson 46), Mulligan, Sylla, Garza (Palmer-Houlden 46), Cameron, Murray (Tiffoney 84), Adewumi (Larkeche 70).
Subs not used: McCracken, Ingram, McGhee, Lopez, Portales.
Hearts: Gordon, Forrester, Neilson (Steinwender 83), McCart, Penrice, Drammeh (Vargas 70), Devlin, Baningime, Spittal (Forrest 70), Shankland (Dhanda 79), Kabangu (Wilson 79).
Subs not used: Clark, Nieuwenhof, Boateng, Taylor.
Referee: Lloyd Wilson
Attendance: 7,458
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