Brendan Rodgers and Mark McGhee in war of words

Brendan Rodgers and Mark McGhee traded insults and accusations after a touchline spat involving Celtic assistant Chris Davies at the conclusion of the the Scottish champions' epic 4-3 win over Motherwell at Fir Park.

Motherwell manager Mark McGhee at the end of the Ladbrokes Scottish Premiership match at Fir Park. Picture: Jane Barlow/PA Wire.

Celtic manager Rodgers claimed that the actions of his Motherwell counterpart were not “befitting of the assistant manager of the national team” after McGhee had earlier stated that the Irishman’s staff “weren’t really Celtic quality in terms of their behaviour”.

The Celtic manager leapt to the defence of his assistant by citing McGhee as the originator of an acrimonious end to a thrilling afternoon that resulted in Davies being pushed away from the Motherwell technical area by a steward.

“I think it’s very unfair [the comments by McGhee], especially when he comes up into our warm up and and asks our players to move to a different area, I don’t think that’s very befitting of the assistant manager of a national team or of a manager of Motherwell.

“My staff are exemplary in their behaviour, there’s no doubt about that. We know what we’re representing here.

“I think when we represent the club we’ll always be honest. We have integrity. My staff represent this club well. I think it’s a completely unfair representation.

“We go to every stadium we have in the world this season so far, and we do our warm up as we normally do… why can’t we do the warm up we do all across the world here at Motherwell?

“I don’t know what the issue was and maybe that’s what sparked it. We were just practising shooting. But anyway, that isn’t the story of the game. The story of the game is that my team were brilliant second half.”

McGhee, as first into the press room following the dramatic encounter, had proved scathing when asked about Davies’ obvious disgruntlement with the home bench. “Brendan was as good as gold, as always he was dignified in victory like he is dignified in defeat,” he said.

“We had no problem with Brendan but I think some of the staff weren’t really Celtic quality in terms of their behaviour. I don’t know his name, you’re telling me his name so I think that says it all.

“He seemed to be for some reason angry that they’d won, so explain that to me. He wasn’t shaking hands with me, but nothing had gone on in the game. I enjoyed the game, I think Brendan did too.”