Inside Scottish football's shock managerial sacking as dysfunctional Dundee follow familiar pattern

On his haunches, staring down at the turf. Tony Docherty was captured for several seconds in this pose by the television cameras in the final moments of Dundee’s vital clash with Ross County one week ago today.

It was a natural reaction to the crushing blow of seeing the top-flight existence his team were seemingly on the brink of preserving cruelly - and, it turned out, temporarily - plucked from their grasp by the flimsiest of penalty kick awards. And yet, as he sits in the sunshine in his garden, the now out-of-work Docherty might reflect that it wasn’t the worst or the most contentious decision he was forced to accept as the season drew to an end.

Docherty's long term Broughty Ferry residency was identified as a huge positive following his surprise appointment as Dundee manager two years ago next week. He lives a matter of minutes away from the club’s training base at the Dundee and Angus College campus at Gardyne, which limited the amount of time so often wasted by managers driving back and forth to a family home (his predecessor, Gary Bowyer, had travelled up and down to the Midlands).

Dundee manager Tony Docherty applauds the 4000 travelling fans after the 2-0 win at St Johnstone which secured Premiership safety in what turned out to be his last match in charge. (Photo by Paul Devlin / SNS Group) | SNS Group

But now such convenience will feel like a curse for Docherty. The chickens have come home to roost and sadly for him, they do so on his own doorstep. He can barely leave his home without being confronted by a world in which he no longer has an involvement, which must be difficult for someone said to "live and breathe" being Dundee manager.

He will see local newspaper billboards relaying news of who’s in the running for a job it seems he had no indication he was on the brink of losing when he attended the Dundee player of the year dinner on Sunday evening.

Of course, he had to be aware of the occupational hazards following his own appointment, which itself followed a controversial sacking. Bowyer had just led Dundee into the Premiership only to be jettisoned five days later, and just minutes after news he had won the Championship manager of the year award dropped. When asked at the time about this, Docherty, who had left a secure post as Derek McInnes’ long-term assistant, was realistic. “I would be crazy if I had not done my due diligence. As you say, there has been a pattern here….”

Beware of pitch invasions ought to be a recommendation for Dundee managers. Bowyer left after Dundee fans swarmed onto the pitch at Ochilview after a 5-3 win over Queen’s Park secured the Championship title. The supporters swarmed on at McDiarmid Park on Sunday after it was confirmed Dundee would be playing top-flight football again next season following a 2-0 win over St Johnstone. Just once in the last twenty years have Dundee enjoyed such a three-season spell of relative consolidation. Only 15 times in the past 40 seasons have the Dens Park side bettered their current standing of tenth in Scotland.

Dundee fans on the pitch at full time after the 2-0 win over St Johnstone which secured Premiership survival. (Photo by Paul Devlin / SNS Group) | SNS Group

Asked last summer by When Saturday Comes, the football magazine, to fill out a form for their pre-season preview pull-out, I answered the first question - “Realistically, how will Dundee do?” - by writing: “The risk is falling prey to the difficult second season syndrome, so anything above 11th is probably acceptable in the bid to consolidate the club in the top flight again.”

I remember thinking that other Dundee fans might complain about the lack of ambition but my problem was the bitter pill of experience: eight relegations since the major reconstruction of the mid-1970s means Dundee have the status of Scottish football’s premier yo-yo club.

Of course, they have since earned another title for themselves: that of most dysfunctional football club. We should have known what to expect when an ominous sounding message dropped bright and early on Monday morning: Management Team update.

Docherty, it informed, had been relieved of his duties, along with assistant Stuart Taylor, goalkeeper coach Alan Combe and Graeme Henderson, the head of performance poached a year ago from Falkirk. Coach Scott Paterson, whose son plays for the Dundee Under-18 side beaten by Kilmarnock in the final of Youth Cup last month, has been retained.

All the football staff had been called into a 9am strategy meeting on Monday morning. Even given past experience, it did not necessarily ring any alarm bells. Docherty had spent the previous evening with fans and players at the Invercarse hotel, a hotel in the city's west end. The mood was described as “buoyant”.

It was the end of a long, hard season and mission had been accomplished, albeit with the loss of 77 goals – the most in the league. One of the auction prizes on offer was a round of golf with Docherty, or, at least ‘with the Dundee manager’, which went for £450.

Dundee managing director John Nelms (right) and technical director Gordon Strachan. | SNS Group

Little did most people know, but the game was already a bogey for the manager. Managing director John Nelms was not present at the club dinner but then that was not out of the ordinary. Technical director Gordon Strachan, meanwhile, was entertaining guests as one of the main speakers at the Scottish Football Writers’ Association dinner in Glasgow. Although cited as being present at the same dinner, Docherty was with his players and among the fans in Dundee.

There was no suggestion that a P45 was winging its way towards him and others. Although Strachan was seen speaking to him after the win in Perth, it's not thought that his future was mentioned – why would it have to be?

Football moves on quickly. However harsh his treatment – and it is, in this writer’s view, extremely harsh – Docherty will remember there were few lamenting Bowyer’s departure when he hit the ground running two seasons ago.

Nelms described parting ways with Bowyer as a “calculated gamble”. The explanation for Docherty’s exit was a more brutal ‘not good enough’. The results, a statement said, “have not met the standards expected by the club”. Mitigating factors, such as the sa;e of the influential Luke McCowan in August, were not mentioned.

Whoever comes in next, with Shaun Maloney and Scott Brown still seen as leading contenders, they will be advised to do so with their eyes wide open.