Motherwell caretaker boss Stevie Frail admits their performance was so bad he’d have joined the fans in booing the players after their defeat to Ross County.
And he revealed he knows who will be left to pick up the pieces with the announcement of a new manager imminent.
The Steelmen slipped to a fifth straight defeat after Ronan Hale’s brace and a late Connor Randall strike for the Staggies ensured Motherwell’s recent misery continued.
Fans made their feelings known at full-time and Frail was shocked that the players didn’t do more to try and impress the incoming gaffer who will succeed Stuart Kettlewell in the hot-seat at the start of the week.
He said: “It was far from good enough. You heard the dissenting boos from the stand and to be fair, I would have booed the players and everyone involved with the club this afternoon with a performance like that.
“The players knew since the first day that Stuart left that there was a new manager coming in. They knew that I was only taking it, at least for the Celtic game, possibly for this game. They knew that but I don’t think we’ve done enough collectively. We should be putting on a better performance than that because it wasn’t good enough.
“I know who’s coming in and hopefully everything gets signed and dotted properly and this football club gets a manager who’s going to build on the good work that’s gone before him and hopefully continue to get us up the table and finish in a healthy position.
“Today was extremely poor and we have a despondent group of players. We thought we’d picked the right team but maybe I didn’t.”
Former Newcastle and Dundee midfielder Temur Ketsbaia is on a two-man shortlist for the job and Frail admitted whoever is coming is unlikely to be keeping him on board.
Asked if the new boss would be unveiled at the start of the week, Frail said: “We’re hoping so because I think the players need that bit of clarity, they need that.
“He [the new manager] is going to inherit a group of players who are talented, devoid of a bit of confidence but hopefully he can try and galvanise that for what will be a difficult game next week at Tannadice.
“I know he is coming in with an assistant I’m not sure many people would want me to stay after that performance. I’ll know more next week.”
The defeat sees the Steelmen slip to seventh and just fourth points off the relegation play-off spot.