McGhee gets set to oppose ‘injustice’ of SFA notice
Despite insisting focus is on upcoming match against Dundee, Motherwell manager intends to appeal ban
MOTHERWELL manager Mark McGhee has vowed to fight the “injustice” of the notice of complaint he has been served by the SFA’s compliance officer after he was sent to the stand during his side’s recent defeat at Pittodrie.
McGhee is potentially facing his second touchline ban of the season, having previously served three-matches with one game suspended in December after being found guilty of verbal abuse towards referee John Beaton after a controversial loss to Dundee.
Despite comments he made after the heavy loss in Aberdeen last week, McGhee has not yet decided whether he will definitely be speaking to a lawyer about the incident, but he has not ruled anything out either.
“It’s not the case for sure that I’ll take legal representation,” McGhee said. “At this moment in time all I’m going to say is that Alan Burrows and I have not sat down together and looked at the report. I’ve only glanced at it and I’ve deliberately left it to the side because I wanted to concentrate on the game this week [against Dundee] and I’ll look at it over the weekend.
“Alan and I will sit down and hammer out the rights and wrongs of it and decide how we approach it, but all options are open to us.
“I don’t want to go into any detail about it, I really don’t, but it is absolutely the case – and this is going to be my last word on it here – that I think there has been an injustice, and I am going to address that.”
It has been a week to forget for McGhee all round as he revealed the extent of the injury picked up by experienced central defender Stephen McManus in Saturday’s defeat at Celtic Park.
The 34-year-old will have to go under the knife to resolve a groin problem, ruling him out for the best part of the next six weeks, while left back Stevie Hammell is also struggling with the injury he picked up in the warm-up last weekend.
“It’s a huge blow for two reasons,” McGhee said. “Mick is important to us and the young boy coming in [Zak Jules] is inexperienced, although we like him, but that leaves us very short of cover.
“Hammy has got some sort of thing wrong with his rotator in his hip. He hasn’t trained this week and that’s as much against him as the injury, which is actually getting better. He might be fit for Saturday but probably not. When the boys were injured and when the others got their chance they did well.”
The fact that the players who did step into the defensive breach for Motherwell managed to keep the normally free-scoring Celtic attack down to just two goals was taken as something of a moral victory by Motherwell and their manager.
A small crumb of comfort it may be after still losing the game, but after shipping seven in the horror show at Pittodrie just three days prior, they were more than willing to grab hold of any succour that was to hand.
It was even suggested to McGhee that the creditable showing at Parkhead may have been that rarest of beasts, a morale-boosting defeat.
“Morale-boosting defeat?” he laughed, “That’s very Scottish that. It was almost a relief more than anything. After Wednesday night, when I hadn’t seen that [7-2 defeat] coming, that’s not the form we’ve been in and we looked so disconnected, you just hope that something is not broken that is going to stay broken.
“On Saturday, we were just hoping that we were going to see what we had seen before the Aberdeen game – the decent form we were in against Rangers, Hearts and Ross County. It was, and that was certainly a relief to me.
“We wanted to come out of that with some sort of mental stability and confidence, and I think with the exception of the Aberdeen game we have.
“We now go into a series of games where we have to go and earn it, but it’s set up for us.”
For McGhee, the match tomorrow against Dundee carries a greater level of significance than some of those games just past due to the oppositions’ proximity in the league standings.
Paul Hartley’s Dundee will visit Fir Park in buoyant mood after their win over Rangers on Sunday, and McGhee isn’t banking on any dip in performance from the visitors after the highs of last weekend.
“We can’t rely on that,” he said. “I only saw the second half of their game on Sunday, but their enthusiasm, their energy and their desire was great, and it got them through it.”