Dundee United boss Csaba Laszlo locked his players in the dressing-room for over an hour for crisis talks after Saturday’s disastrous loss to Morton.
The 3-0 defeat left United 11 points adrift at the top of the Championship and their hopes of automatic promotion hanging by a thread.
It was their third reversal in five league games, a sequence that’s seen them record just a single victory.
That prompted Csaba to miss his post-match press conference as he attempted to thrash out what’s gone wrong. Instead he locked the doors until he’d made clear to his troops what they were producing was not good enough.
And it’s understood before the doors were opened again the players were told to come up with their own answers for what’s gone wrong.
That led to a full and frank exchange of views among the squad.
Even when the door was unlocked and some were allowed to head home, others were kept behind for face-to-face discussions.
And Csaba himself was still in the dressing-room area two hours after the final whistle.
He’s demanded the slump ends now, though with a difficult trip to Inverness Caley Thistle to be faced this weekend there can be no guarantee of that.
Meanwhile, if Csaba was distraught about his team, Morton boss Jim Duffy was delighted at their first Tannadice win for 40 years.
The former Dundee manager revealed the victory was made even more special by a chance meeting after the game with a Tangerines legend. He said: “I bumped into Paul Hegarty after the game.
“He’s a United man through and through and must have been hurting but Paul’s a gentleman and took time to praise my team.
“I played against Paul when he was captain of the greatest-ever United team. And when a man who was as good a player as he was tells you your team has played well you can be proud. It meant a lot to me.”
After what was an unacceptable performance, United are likely to make changes for this weekend.
As he works out his team Csaba should have the option of restoring Tam Scobbie to the defence. He’s expected to recover from the calf problem that’s seen him miss the last two games.
Also available will be winger Paul McMullan. He missed out at the weekend through suspension.
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