Philippe Clement made a sharp exit at the final whistle from his side’s 3-1 defeat to Ross County.
All week the former Monaco boss has been lecturing the nodding dogs of the Scottish media about how to improve the football product based mainly around an unhealthy interest in the drainage system at Dens Park.
This afternoon in Dingwall, population 5,400 the locals provided a near perfect pitch for the moral victors from last week’s Glasgow Derby but Clement’s side were unable to cope with County who went into the match with six wins and 27 points from 32 matches.
An own goal from Jack Baldwin gave the visitors an undeserved lead at half time with County playing most of the football but lacking composure around goal.
Talking of which Cyriel Dessers should have put his side 2-0 in front just before the interval but skied his shot over the terracing with the goal gaping.
Very poor sportsmanship from the in-clement Philippe. Straight down the tunnel at the whistle, not so much as a handshake for the County manager. pic.twitter.com/INcP41w33p
— David 🍀 (@thedavidcurrie) April 14, 2024
Two minutes into the second half Simon Murray handed the Nigerian Kevin Kyle a lesson in finishing, when his first shot was blocked by John Souttar he simply tucked the rebound through the Scotland defender’s legs to put his side in front.
Before Clement could exert his managerial genius on the match his side were trailing 2-1, a shot from Murray was parried into the path of George Harman who made up for two missed chances by slamming the ball home from six yards after John Lundstram had given up on the chase.
Fabio Silva showed his anger at getting substituted in the 54th minute, Borna Barisic suffered the same fate but accepted it with a shrug and a smile as he runs the clock down on his contract.
With James Tavernier chasing scoring records County broke down the left in the 69th minute, when the ball fell to Josh Sims he slotted his shot past Butland while Clement went in to near meltdown.
Dessers was replaced by Kemar Roofe in the 73rd minute but despite possession and pressure County keeper Ross Laidlaw was well protected by his defenders who blocked everything launched into the box.
In the 88th minute Tavpen struck to provide Clement with a glimmer of hope but despite over seven minutes of stoppage time County held on for a 3-2 win.
As the Sky Sports cameras cut to the dug-outs they managed to capture the Ibrox boss racing up the tunnel solo.
There was no grudging congratulations to County boss Don Cowie, no thanks to the hate-filled travelling support and no words of wisdom to share with the players with Fabio Silva the only player involved to be signed by the Belgian.
Fifteen minutes after bolting down the tunnel Clement returned for a stage managed handshake with Cowie, this week there was bo lap of honour or moral victory to savour.
The bad tempered Belgian faces Dundee on Wednesday trailing Celtic by four points and five goals with just two wins in their last seven matches, both against Hibs.
CLICK HERE for Celtic’s likely post-split fixtures.
CLICK HERE for the anguished BBC Scotland report from today’s match.
Super disappointed
Definately out of character for this squad
