When he missed Dundee United’s 2010 Scottish Cup triumph because of a broken foot, Paul Dixon didn’t think he could get any lower.
Sadly, the last week has proved him wrong.
Now the Tangerines full-back is prepared to pay the price by seeing his second spell at the club come to an end.
Proud Arab Dixon admits the past eight days, since United were relegated, have been a nightmare.
“When I realised I wasn’t going to make the cup final because of my injury I thought it was the worst thing that could happen,” he said.
“It wasn’t. Getting relegated at your closest rivals was definitely worse. It’s been the worst week of my career, by far.”
In the wake of the drop being confirmed, Dixon, along with the vast majority of the squad, was told the need to make drastic cuts to the budget at Tannadice meant he was free to leave.
And now his aim is to move on this summer — but only because it could help United.
“If I am one of the higher-paid players here and that’s causing a problem I want to go.
“The club said if I don’t move they’ll honour my contract but if I’m making their situation worse I don’t want to be here.
“I don’t want to hurt United.”
Dixon has no complaints and, as a player, he accepts full responsibility for the predicament United find themselves in.
Honest with himself and the fans, he admits since he returned at the end of last year’s January transfer window following a spell down south at Huddersfield, things have not gone as he’d hoped.
“I’m not happy with how I’ve played.
“My performances haven’t been good enough.
“The only thing I can say is I know I’ve given 100%.
“I’m a United fan, I grew up watching my heroes.
“That means when I pull on the jersey I give my best and that will always be the case.”
It indeed was the case as United ran out winners in a five-goal thriller at Inverness on Friday night.
Having already lost their top-flight place, it was a case of too little too late, so it would be wrong to say a first victory in six games left Dixon pleased.
For him, it was important the team showed they’ll continue to give all they’ve got.
“We restored a little bit of pride, that’s about all you can say.
“It doesn’t change anything but we wanted to show we’re not just playing out the games.”
For a while, United were running away with the game.
Two goals from Simon Murray, the first a fantastic long-range effort, and another from Edward Ofere saw them three ahead with just 55 minutes on the clock.
Strikes from Jordan Roberts and Liam Polworth, however, left them hanging on.
The loss of centre-half Callum Morris, after two yellow cards in three minutes, meant an anxious ending.
“Everything was going well and then we had a mini collapse.
“What happened to Callum was unfortunate but in a strange way it maybe helped us.
“When we went down to 10 men I think we re-focused and we played out the last 10 minutes quite comfortably.”
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