'Sacking harsh on Docherty, but Dundee's ambition refreshing'

With survival secured, Tony Docherty's Dundee tenure has been brought to an abrupt end.The highs were great. Tony can hold his head high for guiding the club to a top-six finish, ending our 21-year wait for a derby win at Tannadice and leaving behind a solid foundation to build on made up of youthful prospects.However, at the start of the season we were entertaining thoughts of Europe and in January we were 10 points ahead of St Johnstone who sat firmly at the bottom. Yet going into the final three games of the season there was still the mathematical possibility of Dundee finishing bottom.The team have regressed and problems from Docherty's debut campaign continued to plague us this season.In two consecutive seasons Dundee have lost the highest number of points from winning positions and often conceded the decisive goal very late on with no time to react.Dundee were too prone to 'freak results' this season too – the Boxing Day calamity against Ross County (who had the worst away record in Europe at the time), ending Aberdeen's 14-league game winless streak, shipping six goals to Hearts and surrendering favourable leads to St Johnstone, Dundee United and Kilmarnock. All those games were played at Dens Park.Another problem was after the sale of Luke McCowan, the midfield dynamic was never repaired.Perhaps one of the reasons why we conceded so many goals was down to the fact the defence were overexposed with little protection. The best Dundee's midfield ever looked post-McCowan to me was when Cesar Garza was introduced into the team alongside Mo Sylla, a partnership never seen again while Lyall Cameron was available.Cameron finished the season strong, but questions were raised on Docherty shoehorning him into the team – prioritising the midfielder's development ahead of deploying a system that best suits the squad.While I can sympathise with Docherty over injuries and departures, there is still a feeling more could have been done. We went into the season knowing Joe Shaughnessy would miss the majority of the campaign, we knew Scott Fraser was going to face a lengthy spell on the sidelines, and yet the recruitment policy overwhelmingly favoured prospects over maturity.While I think these are good players with strong potential in time, that's time Docherty no longer has to reap the benefits. Neil McCann made a similar error during his Dundee reign too.When Gary Bowyer was sacked on the back of winning the Championship title, no one among the fanbase was calling for Docherty to get the job and by the end of the following season we were all pleasantly surprised with the outcome.This feels like a similar situation, emotions are high and the frontrunner name - Shaun Maloney - isn't particularly popular. But Gordon Strachan proved the fans wrong once, he should be trusted to do the same again.The decision maybe is harsh on Docherty, but there is something refreshing about Dundee showing ambition and refusing to reward mediocrity.

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