Dundee United’s plight has gone beyond concern over whether they will be relegated from the Premiership.
For Paul Paton, who hasn’t given up the fight yet, the fear is that the Tannadice club will struggle to come back up.
The United skipper is well aware that neither the club nor its players can take for granted that an exile to the lower leagues would be a short one.
“There are so many good players in the Championship who believe they should be playing in the Premiership,” he said.
“My worry is that you get sucked down there and never get out of it.
“It’s a hard division to get out of. There will be big clubs in there with you, whether it be Kilmarnock, Hamilton, Hibs, or whoever.
“It would be a real slog.
“I was in that division for five years with Partick Thistle and it was tough. You’re relieved and happy when you become a Premiership player so to drop back down to the Championship would be heartbreaking.”
Dropping down to the Championship is exactly the fate that surely awaits United. Saturday’s meek surrender to Inverness Caledonian Thistle, combined with victories for Kilmarnock and Hamilton, saw to that.
United conceded the sort of goal they’ve been losing all season to go behind. Anybody who has seen them regularly will know the script. Miles Storey is just the latest in a long line of players who has taken full advantage of the time and space afforded to strikers by this defence.
And from that opening strike there was little, if any, fight left in the hosts. Caley Thistle got a second through Iain Vigurs not long after the re-start and that was that.
It was a throwback to the bad old days. In fact, given the requirements, you could make a case for it being worse.
Manager Mixu Paatelainen didn’t miss the players with his comments in the dressing room or to the media, and Paton wasn’t about to argue with him.
“I think the gaffer has got every right to ask questions of us,” he said.
“This time last week a lot of people thought we might stay up. We’d shown fighting spirit after going down to 10 men.
“Now we’ve lost our next two games and everybody will be giving us stick again. It’s just not good enough.
“It’s been like that all year. Performances like that get you relegated.
“One week’s good, one week’s poor. The goals we’re giving away are a disgrace. It’s been our downfall all season.
“We didn’t look like creating much today either.”
Paton wasn’t surprised to learn Kilmarnock had taken full advantage of United’s slip-up.
“I fancied Kilmarnock to pick up points today to be honest,” he said. “So we knew this was a must-win.
“We failed to deliver. There’s no point standing here and making excuses. It’s just not good enough. Everybody in the stadium could see that.”
Paton did not believe the increasing pressure of a relegation battle that is drawing to a conclusion was a factor.
“We’ve been under pressure for a number of weeks and put in good performances,” he pointed out.
“We gave away a poor goal and the anxiety that went round the stadium just sapped the belief. You could sense it. We’re a team that maybe need to score the first goal at the minute. There’s maybe a lack of belief when we concede that we can turn it around.”
Paton might have played down the significance of pressure, but he acknowledged that losing to Partick Thistle in midweek had been a hammer blow.
“That was massive,” he said. “We felt we were going to win that after playing really well in the first half.
“Getting nothing has probably killed us physically and mentally. Maybe Inverness had a bit extra in their legs but you don’t want to make excuses. If we’d scored first we’d have found a bit of extra energy.
“It was another day we weren’t good enough and if you have too many like that you get relegated.
United certainly aren’t going into a Scottish Cup semi-final week in high spirits but Paton is glad to get a break from the Premiership nonetheless.
He said: “I think it’s a welcome distraction to get away from the league. It has been in the past.
“Having reached two cup finals in two years I know what it’s like to get there. I want to do that again. Hibs are a really good team and have already battered us 3-0 so we know how difficult it is going to be but the pressure does lift a wee bit.”
Paatelainen, who now has injury concerns over Gavin Gunning and Paul Dixon, said: “We’ve had blows during the season and the boys have always picked themselves up. It remains to be seen whether we’ve done too much damage. I can’t answer that.
“Of course mathematically we’ve still got a chance. How much damage this has caused I don’t know but what I do know is that the boys have spirit.
“Of course, we can win all five remaining games.
“It’s very unlikely with the way our season has gone but we need to win all five unless we get some other results going for us.
“But I can’t accept that display, it’s as simple as that.
“It was a totally unacceptable performance, definitely one of the worst of the season.
“We lacked fighting spirit today and eagerness to make things happen early. We were a little bit soft up front especially.”