As soon as Dundee United’s Ross Graham wheeled away in celebration after putting his side 1-0 up against us on Sunday, Jambos in attendance at Tynecastle knew the game was over despite there being 14 minutes plus injury time to go.
It’s now nine matches without a victory and with a trip to Celtic Park to come followed by a visit to Paisley to face St Mirren, you have to worry where a point is coming from never mind a win.
I was optimistic going into last week’s Europa League play-off against Victoria Plzen that we could get the victory, but we were second best to a side who were definitely there for the taking.
United manager Jim Goodwin copied the Czech side’s sit-behind-the-ball blueprint and we were again devoid of any idea on how to combat it.
I’m now concerned Steven Naismith doesn’t know how to address this alarming slump in form.
He has stressed the new signings need time to bed in, which is understandable, but he is constantly chopping and changing starting line-ups with, averaging four to five alterations each game.
A lot of my Jambos mates have lost patience and want Naismith removed from his position, citing the international break as a perfect time to kick off the managerial search.
The problem with that idea is the Hearts board will have zero intentions of replacing a man they rewarded with a new contract just weeks ago.
They’ll point to the fact we had a similar start last year and he turned it round, but there’s key differences this time. Firstly, we have European fixtures so will be playing almost twice a week until Christmas, something we have already struggled with.
Secondly, Aberdeen are 11 points ahead of us after just four games, so you could argue third place is already unobtainable and that would be an embarrassing admission to make in September.
I definitely want Naismith to succeed but something needs to change in order to kickstart our season. Whether he needs to freshen up his own coaching staff or sign a free agent striker, the board must decide to back him or not.
