Furious boss rips into Scottish football and says League 2 team 100 times better

16 December 2023 , 20:39

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Derek Adams tore into the standard in Scottish football (Image: BBC)

Ross County manager Derek Adams has lashed out at the standard of football in Scotland in an astonishing post-match rant.

His side were downed in the 97th minute by Dundee, who won 1-0 thanks to a late goal from Joe Shaughnessy on Saturday. Adams left Morecambe in November to return for a third spell at the Scottish Premiership side and replace the sacked Malky Mackay.

He left Morecambe ninth in League Two – the fourth tier of English football – to take over a side who are now ninth in the top flight of Scottish football. But Adams feels that his old side, who were relegated from League One last season, play at a much, much higher level than Ross County.

“We were the better side and had the better chances throughout the afternoon, but that takes nothing away from the fact that the game was really poor,” Adams told the BBC. “The standard is shocking. It's one of the worst games I’ve ever seen. I've been back here and see the standard and think ‘Wow, any chance?’

“If I’m a spectator and watching that today I’m thinking is this what Scottish football is about? It need to up its game. We were better than Dundee – Tony Docherty has to say that – but we’ve been done with a sucker-punch at the end. But the standard on the afternoon and in the games I’ve seen is so poor.”

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Adams has huge experience of Scottish football, both as a player and a manager. The 48-year-old played for Ross County in two spells as a midfielder and returned to manage the club for a third spell last month, nine years after leaving to embark on a career south of the border at Plymouth, Morecambe and Bradford.

Derek Adams previously took charge of Morecambe in League Two (Chris Vaughan/Getty Images)

"It is rubbish. It really is,” he said. "The quality, for a supporter to go to games, see passing movements and chances created – the amount of times the ball is given away and no-one is under pressure – it’s got to be a lot better. If this is the best product in this division, it has to be a lot better. If I’m a paying customer I’m not coming back to watch that, I can tell you that."

He added: "I’ve left a team in League Two that’s miles better than this team. Miles. That’s saying something. We had the bottom team budget in League Two and were 100 times better than this – one hundred times! That’s something I can’t change at this moment in time. I'm so frustrated and I look at the squad and know what’s been spent. We have to do a lot better, the players have to do a lot better."

Felix Keith