Mark McGhee criticism of Celtic staff unfair, says Brendan Rodgers
Tuesday 6 December 2016 07:59, UK
Managers Mark McGhee and Brendan Rodgers became embroiled in a war of words after Celtic's last-gasp 4-3 win over Motherwell.
There appeared to be no love lost between Steelmen boss McGhee and Celtic's assistant Chris Davies at the end of the rollercoaster match and the unpleasantries continued afterwards.
The row appeared to stem from McGhee's attempts to disrupt Celtic's shooting practice before the match, which saw Motherwell lead 2-0 at half-time before a stirring second half ended with Tom Rogic winning three points for Celtic in the 90th minute.
Speaking first at the post-match press conference, McGhee said: "Brendan was as good as gold, dignified in victory and dignified in defeat.
"There are no problems with Brendan. Some of the other staff are not really Celtic-quality in terms of their behaviour.
"I don't know his name actually (Davies) - you have told me his name. He wasn't shaking hands with me. He seemed for some reason to be angry that they won. Explain that to me?"
But Rodgers, when he was told of McGhee's "quality" comments, turned on the Scotland assistant manager.
He said: "I think that is very unfair, especially as he comes up into our warm-up before the game to ask our players to warm up in a different area. He shouldn't be doing that.
"I don't think that is very befitting of an assistant manager of a national team and manager of Motherwell. My staff are exemplary in their behaviour. We know what we are representing. We have integrity.
"I said congratulations to the groundsman here before the game because the pitch is very good. But why can't we do our warm-up here at Motherwell? The one we have done in every stadium in the world we have been to so far this season?
"So I don't know what the issue was there and maybe that's where it sparked from. But that isn't the story of the game. The story is that my team were brilliant in the second half."
Celtic appeared to be on their way to a first defeat of the Scottish Premiership season at the break, with Louis Moult scoring both Motherwell goals, but they produced a fine display in the second 45 minutes that left Rodgers purring.
"It is arguably the most pleasing (win) after being in that adverse situation," he added. "We hadn't had that before so to see the joy in the supporters, they appreciate the fight and spirit in the team.
"I thought we were defensively very poor in the first half but I thought we were brilliant in the second half in terms of our composure, at 2-0 down.
"Huge credit to the players and the winning mentality and spirit within the team.
"I didn't go berserk at half-time - there was none of that. The issues were simple. The back four were too deep and that didn't allow us to press the game and there was too much space, but how could we find the solution? I am delighted for them."
On the other side. McGhee has some defensive issues to correct and work on that will start on Monday.
He said: "You want to compete and say you had a go and I think we did that. Our first-half performance was fantastic.
"One of the things Brendan would have been able to say to his players is that we are a team that concedes goals, and that is our problem at the moment. We have scored three and lost four. That's where we will be doing the work next week, to keep a clean sheet when we are ahead."
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