Aberdeen chairman Dave Cormack admitted he was “embarrassed and humiliated” by the results which led to him sacking Jim Goodwin as manager immediately after Saturday’s 6-0 Premiership loss at Hibernian.
The Dons announced the Irishman and assistant Lee Sharp had been relieved of their duties in a statement just 19 minutes after the final whistle at Easter Road.
The heavy loss came just five days after Aberdeen’s ignominious Scottish Cup exit at the hands of Darvel and 10 after they conceded five goals on the other side of Edinburgh in a 5-0 defeat to Hearts.
Cormack spoke to the media after the game to express his dismay at recent results and promised fans the board would make the right appointment in the dugout.
Cormack, who has seen the team collect only four points from a possible 24 since mid-December, said: “The results since the World Cup (break) have been completely unacceptable.
“Personally I feel I have let down the supporters. I met with Jim and he is a thoroughly decent man as most of you know. He came and gave me a hug and said it wasn’t good enough.
“Jim is a very, very honourable and decent man, honest, trustworthy, transparent and I feel for him.
“This is a decision that both Jim and I said we immediately needed to make after the game.
“We really did not need to say much more than that. He has given it everything he could give it but the simple fact is the results since the World Cup have not been good enough.
“Our away form has just been abysmal, totally and utterly unacceptable.
“The players need to take responsibility too. It is always the managers who get it.
“Embarrassed, humiliated, just shellshocked at the last week are the words I have.
“That’s how our fans feel and I feel for them, I apologise to them.
“It’s not a lack of investment. When running a business, whether it’s a football club or in my background in software companies, it’s about having a strategy and a vision and that’s all fair and well but it’s down to having the right people in place at the right time that are able to execute it.”
US-based Cormack vowed to remain in Scotland to oversee at least the start of the search for their third manager since March 2021.
Cormack, who appointed Goodwin as Stephen Glass’ successor last February, said: “I’m staying here for at least the next week. I’ve been here for two weeks.
“We will gather tomorrow as a group and have a conversation. We haven’t even discussed it, I’ve been round each of the directors of where we are today.
“I’m here talking to you because I want to talk to our fans and I want them to know I feel that I’ve let them down. It’s not a lack of investment and we’re determined to get it right.”
The defeat leaves Aberdeen in seventh place in the cinch Premiership, two points adrift of Livingston, who face Hearts on Sunday, in fourth.
In contrast, Hibs’ day could not have gone any better as they bounced back from last weekend’s Scottish Cup loss to rivals Hearts in style.
Josh Campbell laid the foundations for his hat-trick with a first-half brace before Elie Youan added another before the interval.
Kevin Nisbet – just 24 hours after dramatically turning down a move to Millwall – notched his eighth of the campaign after climbing off the bench before Campbell converted a penalty and Will Fish added a sixth.
On Nisbet’s U-turn, boss Lee Johnson said: “I believe he’ll be here beyond Tuesday – he’s here now, isn’t he?
“There’s nothing else bubbling that I’m aware of and I think he’ll be here at least until the summer.
“He hasn’t spoken to me a lot because we’ve been rapidly focused on the game.
“He was even late for the game because of the traffic from Glasgow but I spoke to him very briefly to say ‘welcome back, I’m personally delighted you haven’t gone’ and articulate why he was going to come on from the bench and not start.”
Johnson had sympathy for Goodwin after seeing his opposite number lose his job.
He added: “I shook his hand – I know Jim, I’ve played against him a number of times and he’s a very good manager.
“It’s a ruthless business this game – I’ve been on the end of scenarios like that myself but he’ll be fine.
“He’s a very good manager with a very good track record and he’ll go and get another good job very quickly.
“But I want to talk about Hibs and the plan coming together in terms of the performance.”
