Jim Goodwin was in no mood to shy away from the scale of the task facing the club in the coming months as his side missed out on a top six finish following defeat at home to Ross County today.

“I knew the task in front of me when I joined. I looked at the squad and had discussions about what we would need to do in the summer with the chairman and the board, and expressed that we do need to make changes, we need to freshen things up not just with the players but with some of the backroom staff too.

“We’ve already made some extremely difficult decisions, but they’ve had to be made in order for the club to move forward. We have to bring in some fresh talent and unfortunately, to make room for that, others need to move on. I’ve been brought in to do that, I asked for some autonomy when I took the job, I want to be allowed to make those changes. Only time will tell if they’re the right ones.

“We’ve identified some very good players, we’re talking to a lot of people at the moment to try and strengthen the squad for next season. We need to do better across the board and we will all take responsibility for that. We do not want to be in this position again in 12 months’ time.

“We’re not going to shy away from what’s happening here, and I will take my fair share of the responsibility as well. I’ve been here for seven weeks and I’ve had enough time to turn it around enough to get the points needed to get into the top six. I haven’t been able to do that.

“It’s a hugely disappointing end to this part of the campaign. The season isn’t over, there are five games to go, we need to go and restore some pride in those games. But a club of this size, with that squad of players, we should not be in this position. To miss out on the top six is extremely regrettable, there’s no doubt about that. We all take responsibility for that.

“There’s still a lot to play for. We have to win as many games as possible between now and the end of the season. Seventh is now the best we can do, so we have to try and finish there. It won’t be easy, the teams below us are fighting for their lives and we have got to be willing to go out and scrap as well. I will say that since I’ve been here, I don’t think I can fault the players for effort and commitment. I don’t think anybody can point the finger and say they don’t care about the situation. We simply have to accept that consistently, we haven’t been good enough to win games. Today was an example of that. Although we played some decent football and got in some good areas, and we even created some half decent opportunities, we just weren’t good enough at those key moments to score goals. It’s cost us dearly, not just today, but on many occasions.

“I understand the frustration of the fans. The club belongs to the supporters. Myself, the players, the staff, we’re employees but like every other football club, it’s the supporters that keep it alive. Generations of families have come here and do come here and they have every right to criticise us off the back of what’s happened here today.

“I was disappointed with the penalty decision, but I don’t want to be blaming the referee for the fact we’ve lost the game. It’s a very difficult time to be a defender, I would say that. I don’t see Jonny Hayes’ arm is in an unnatural position, their player is quite clever in what he does with the ball, but as a game, we have to be careful how we award penalties here otherwise attacking players will just start chipping the ball onto defenders’ hands.

“But we shouldn’t be relying on the referee making these calls, we had enough of the ball in the final third to go and score a couple of goals of our own. We came close on a couple of occasions, but the fact of the matter is we weren’t able to do it. We had an opportunity to get top six, we had to win and hope for a favour from Hearts. Hearts did their bit and we didn’t, and that is a difficult one to take.”