Keith flops will leave says Deano
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DEAN Donaldson is ready to wield the axe on his Keith under-performers after Saturday’s Kynoch Park derby horror show.
The Maroons manager accused some of his players of throwing in the towel during Saturday’s 8-2 home hammering at the hands of Buckie Thistle.
“Deano” promised to send his slackers packing, and was true to his word this week when he placed midfielder Max Berton on the transfer list.
And he said if more players aren’t weeded out after the weekend flop, he will consider his own future at the Kynoch Park helm.
Keith were in contention for a positive result after 43 minutes of Saturday’s Banffshire derby, but simply caved in. From 1-1 in the later stages of the first half, they went in at the break 3-1 down and lost five more goals before captain Cammy Keith gained scant consolation with a last-minute penalty.
“There were so many boys out there who just gave up,” said a shell-shocked Donaldson.
“And so many of them boys won’t be here for long, it’s either me or them because I’m not going to accept that.
“This is a low point. Either they will go or I’ll go because I can’t work with boys that are just going to give up.
“That really was soul-destroying stuff.”
Berton was put on the transfer list at the start of this week and Donaldson is ready to show more the door after Keith’s heaviest-ever home defeat against Buckie.
He admitted as a manager he is still learning himself but would never give up on a game as easily as some of his players did on Saturday.
“The character in the team has just shown right through. The boys gave up and that’s not something I expected from one of my teams,” he said.
“Obviously I’m still learning and I’m learning the hard way by the looks of it. The goals we lost were just comical, they were schoolboy stuff. I’m in managing Keith for Keith, it’s not for my own career. I’m here because I love Keith and some of these boys obviously don’t care.
“They’ll go home and they will have their nights out and they’ll probably not think twice about it whereas some of the boys there don’t deserve that because they are there for Keith and for their team.”
Donaldson will urge his team to regroup and restore some pride tomorrow when they make the trip to much-improved Fort William.
So often the league whipping boys, Fort have this season recruited nine Caley Thistle youth players on loan and recently broke their two-year winless streak by defeating Nairn in the North of Scotland Cup.
Donaldson is certain to reshuffle his team for the Lochaber match, and will look for his strongest characters to emerge on Saturday and try to take Keith back to winning ways.
“We’ve got a few boys back so a few will sit on the bench or be moved on, that’s just the way it’s got to be,” he said.
Keeper David Dey is out with a broken wrist.
