Craig Brown doesn't pull his punches in criticising Shaun Maloney's penalty

Published on Sunday 29 August 2010 18:46

MOTHERWELL manager Craig Brown avoided throwing any punches at Fir Park yesterday, but he aimed a couple of verbal blows at referee Dougie McDonald and Celtic forward Shaun Maloney as he lamented the award of the penalty kick which condemned his side to a 1-0 defeat.

While Brown was at pains to point out that Celtic deserved to take all three points from a lacklustre contest, he claimed McDonald pointed to the spot despite not having properly seen Steven Saunders' challenge on Maloney with 17 minutes remaining. According to Brown, the Celtic player also made the most of the incident which saw Saunders sent off before Daryl Murphy converted the penalty which sent Neil Lennon's team to the top of the SPL.

Brown, who was involved in a physical exchange with Odense official Kim Brink during Motherwell's Europa League defeat against the Danish side on Thursday night, maintained his stance after watching several television re-runs of the incident. "The penalty was easy to give," said Brown. "It was a through ball, both players chased it and when Steven Saunders made the challenge, Shaun Maloney's legs quickly left the ground. He went down very, very easily.

"Dougie McDonald was not in the best position to see it, there were a couple of players between him and the incident. But he was very quick to give it. I spoke to Steven, who is an excellent young player, after the game and told him it is a lesson for him. If a player, especially an Old Firm player, is running into the box on his weaker side as Shaun Maloney was, then there is no need to make a challenge. It would not have been easy to score from that position. Saunders will learn from it, but it cost us a point.

"But we didn't do enough to take any more from the game. Celtic were marginally the better side and deserved to win. It was the poorest we have been this season and I attribute that to having played nine games already, in Europe and the SPL, with the same group of players."

Celtic manager Neil Lennon did not attend the post-match media conference, first team coach Alan Thompson appearing instead. But Lennon did speak to ESPN and heaped praise on Maloney's performance following a second-half reshuffle which deployed him as a central striker. "I thought he was fantastic once he went through the middle," said Lennon. "We were pretty resolute at the back, the midfield were strong and athletic and the front three did great. I thought we controlled the game for long periods."

Thompson revealed the Celtic players had been forced to watch a re-run of their 4-0 Europa League defeat in Utrecht on Thursday in the build-up to yesterday's match. "We sat down on Friday and made them go through it again," said Thompson. "Let's not get away from it, we are all disappointed not to be in Europe. It was always going to be difficult coming here after what happened on Thursday but we are very pleased with the performance and the three points."

Thompson said he was unaware of any developments in Celtic's pursuit of Hibs striker Anthony Stokes and Hapoel Tel-Aviv forward Itay Shechter but confirmed the management team's desire to bring in two new front men before the transfer window closes tomorrow night. There was praise from both camps for Honduran left-back Emilio Izaguirre - one of ten signings made so far by Lennon - who made an eye-catching debut.

"I thought he was excellent from start to finish," said Thompson. Brown went further, stating: "Izaguirre was outstanding, immaculate throughout. I thought we were looking at Roberto Carlos."