No blame for Craig says boss
Motherwell manager Mark McGhee refused to allow Craig Samson to take the blame for Saturday’s home defeat to St Johnstone.
The boss revealed that former Kilmarnock goalkeeper Samson held his hands up to his mistake in the dressing room afterwards.
But with Samson ensuring Celtic didn’t score even more goals against the Steelmen in the Betfred Cup last mid-week, McGhee insisted his side win and lose as a team.
“He was holding his hand up but the point I made was that, as a group, we have not played well,” said McGhee, who was without the injured Steven Hammell and Craig McHugh as well as Louis Moult. “Scotty (McDonald) has missed a chance.
“Craig has been brilliant recently. At Parkhead the other night I think it would have been double figures if it wasn’t for him, so you have to forgive him that. We didn’t lose the game because one popped out from him.
“We lost the game because as a group we were way off the pace.
“We have had three testing games within a week, away to Kilmarnock, Celtic and now today so we just have to work out why we were as lethargic as we were and recover for next week.
“It wasn’t so much a hangover at the fact we lost a game 5-0 but the fact that we had lost a tough game, a physical game and we only had two days to recover.
“To some degree our performance was affected by what happened on Wednesday night (a 5-0 defeat to Celtic in the Betfred Cup) but it wasn’t the major factor.”