McGhee faces lengthy ban after tirade at official
Lasley and his team-mates were blown away by the second-placed side in the Ladbrokes Premiership at Pittodrie on Wednesday night.
The Fir Park club, missing defensive midfielder Carl McHugh and forward Scott McDonald, were torn apart by Derek McInnes’s team.
However, the Steelmen skipper is confident that his side can regroup and give the Scottish champions another scare away from home.
“It was a bad night against Aberdeen,” he said. “It is hard to take, and will be until we come to the game on Saturday, which we will be prepared for. I know it is hard saying this in the wake of what happened at Aberdeen, but we still feel capable. It might be hard for our fans to listen to that and take that, but we still do belief in ourselves.
“We will go away and dust ourselves down and still believe that. We have some big games before the split and we feel capable [of finishing in the top six].”
Motherwell nearly inflicted the first domestic defeat of the 2016/17 campaign on Brendan Rodgers’ side at the start of December.
They were leading 2-0 and 3-1 at home and were left devastated at the end when a lastminute Tom Rogic goal secured a remarkable 4-3 victory for Celtic.
But Lasley added: “What gives us hope is that we have given them a game in recent times. We back ourselves inside our dressing room. I know MOTHERWELL manager Mark McGhee could potentially be facing a lengthy touchline ban on the back of a miserable night in Aberdeen.
The former Dons boss was sent to the stand during his team’s 7-2 defeat at Pittodrie on Wednesday and then re- how our fans will be feeling right now and I just ask them to stick with us.
“It doesn’t get any easier. Celtic are next up, but we will get the heads up for that. We’ll come up with the best way forward. The manager is more than capable of doing that. He has certainly shown that in the past.
“Everyone finds it tough [at Celtic Park] and we are not any different – but that is football and anybody can win on any given day.”
LASLEY was responsible for the third goal that Aberdeen, who moved three points clear of Rangers in second spot, scored when he failed to clear a ball in the Motherwell penalty area to safety.
The 37-year-old admitted his side would have to perform far better at the back if they are to halt the threat of the Celtic strikeforce. acted angrily towards Dons fans. And he could be in further trouble after claiming he had been the victim of an “agenda” as he criticised fourth official John McKendrick, accusing him of being “aggressive and hostile”.
The Scotland assistant manager was ejected from the dugout by referee Alan Muir on the
“We are desperately disappointed with the performance against Aberdeen,” he said. “First and foremost, the result takes care of itself, but the performance from us was poor.
“When you go to a place like Pittodrie and perform like that there is only going to be one outcome. All credit to Aberdeen, they played well and have a lot of good players. But we were poor.
“There were a lot of individual errors, myself included, and we never quite got into the game.
“If you lose a goal after a couple of minutes in any game it is going to be difficult. It is doubly difficult if you lose a goal like that to an Aberdeen team that is on form.
“It wasn’t how we wanted to start the game, but if we have aspirations of a top-six place, it seems silly even talking about that just now, we are going to have to keep the ball out of the net better.” basis of McKendrick’s advice and McGhee declared himself “absolutely disgusted and horrified by the attitude of the fourth official”.
He added: “Before a ball was kicked, he was causing issues that didn’t exist.”
Asked if he would be speaking to the Scottish Football Association’s
Lasley declined to offer his thoughts on the controversial sending off of Motherwell manager Mark McGhee in the second half of the Aberdeen game.
But he indicated there had been some harsh words spoken in their dressing room afterwards.
“What is said in there will be kept to ourselves,” he said. “I can assure our fans, and especially the ones who made the trip up there, that we can only apologise.
“I don’t want to sound patronising because I genuinely mean that from every single squad member. It is not good enough and we know that.
“The only way we can put it right to repay our fans who came up here is to make sure from now until the split is that we put on performances that are way better than we showed at Aberdeen. We want to put on displays that we know we are capable of.” head of referees, John Fleming, McGhee continued: “John Fleming? I’ll be speaking to a lawyer. I can only think there is an agenda.’’
After being sent to the stand, the former Aberdeen player angrily ordered a fan to stop filming him on his mobile phone. The footage has since been widely shared online. McGhee is already sitting on a suspended one-match ban after admitting to using offensive language towards referee John Beaton at Dens Park earlier this season.
But his immediate concern will be to improve Motherwell’s defensive play ahead of Saturday’s trip to Celtic Park.