GLASS RANT WAS A SMOKESCREEN, SAYS ALEXANDER

MOTHERWELL boss Graham Alexander claims Aberdeen rival Stephen Glass’s furious complaints about Fir Park striker Kevin van Veen were just ‘a smokescreen’ for his Dons side’s failings this season. Glass (below), whose team haven’t won in six games, said Van Veen should have been sent off on two separate occasions during last Saturday’s 2-0 defeat in Lanarkshire. Speaking after the Dutchman opened the scoring and provided an assist for Juhani Ojala’s clincher, the Pittodrie manager insisted he had been lucky to stay on the park following an earlier yellow card. ‘The guy has two kicks at Ross (McCrorie) — pretty blatant — and the ball goes out for a throw-in, so the referee doesn’t have to give a foul and a second yellow,’ said Glass, who was cautioned by John Beaton before the ref redcarded his No 2 Allan Russell at full-time. ‘He probably should have got it in the first half but the referee chose not to give one then as well.’ Accusing Glass of trying to deflect attention from his team’s uninspiring start to the season, Alexander jumped to the defence of ex-Scunthorpe forward Van Veen. ‘I didn’t see anything bad from Kevin at all,’ he said. ‘What happens is, when an opponent beats you, you look for reasons

and, because we’re Motherwell, it can’t be through quality or skill. It has to be something outside of the rulebook but I didn’t see anything that either team did differently last week. ‘I think it was a bit of a smokescreen (from Glass), trying to say Kevin did this, that or the other. In fact, even his booking was a little bit harsh, which the ref admitted to him. He thought the whole game was getting a bit frantic and tried to set an example.’