Pat McCarron has had worse weeks — it’s just he can’t think when.
In 40 years of supporting Dundee United, he can’t ever remember feeling as low as he has since the final whistle sounded at Dens Park on Monday night.
Referee Willie Collum’s blast didn’t just confirm a second derby defeat of the season, it condemned Pat’s beloved Tangerines to at least a season out of the Premiership.
And for the 54-year-old it was the culmination of a year of agony he always feared would end in relegation.
Despite that and despite his anger at the way United have been run on and off the park this season, he will be spending the early part of this evening dashing up the A9 to get to the Highlands in time for tonight’s televised clash with Inverness Caley Thistle.
With United down and Caley safe, it’s almost the perfect definition of a meaningless end-of-season game.
TV viewing figures are expected to be horrendous and the crowd miniscule.
But for Pat, United are playing, that makes it important and he wants to be there.
“It’s what I do, I support my team,” he said.
“I want to be supporting them when they’re winning and doing well and I’m not happy about this season. But they’re still my team, so I’m going.
“It will be tight because I don’t finish my work (in Perth) until five but my partner Ruth is getting picked up in Dundee by a mate and I’ll nip up to the Broxden Roundabout and meet them there, so we should make it in time.”
It’s the kind of dash Pat is used to because whenever and wherever United play, he tries to be there.
Next week’s final game at Kilmarnock poses a problem because of the 12.30 kick off at Rugby Park.
He works Saturday mornings but he’s hopeful an understanding boss, also an Arab, will let him away in time to make it.
The way he follows United is best described as devotion but it’s certainly not of the blind variety.
Having managed at junior level during a period when he lived and worked in Aberdeen, his knowledge of the game is good.
And having been there from day one of this awful campaign he can say “I told you so.”
“I met three mates who were down supporting Aberdeen and had a pint when we played them at Tannadice on the first day of the season.
“I told them United were going to get relegated and they just laughed at me. Even when Aberdeen beat us they said it had been close and there was no way United would go down.
“I did still bet one of them we’d finish above Aberdeen because we do it every season but I told them I was serious.
“I’d been over to Holland for the pre-season — you saw me there — and I could see things weren’t right. To be honest, I thought they looked a shambles and, after finishing last season so badly, I was worried.
“It doesn’t give me any pleasure to be proved right because this has been the worst season ever.
“The team’s been a mess and the club’s been a mess, it’s been a nightmare and I’m not happy about it.
“Some of the players have done all they could and if we had 11 John Rankins we wouldn’t be in this mess. We don’t and overall the team is too soft and just not good enough.
“Players don’t seem to speak to each other, they don’t tackle and there’s not been enough fight.
“Add that to the way the club’s been run and that’s why it’s such a mess right now.
“But United are my team and I’ll be there to support them at every game I can get to.”
This article originally appeared on the Evening Telegraph website. For more information, read about our new combined website.