Stuart McCall offered one-match ban as cup opponents meet again

MOTHERWELL manager Stuart McCall has been offered a one-match touchline ban by the Scottish Football Association after being sent to the stand at half-time during his team’s William Hill Scottish Cup defeat by Aberdeen last Sunday.

McCall, who was angered by the awarding of a corner that led to Aberdeen’s early opener, is alleged to have breached rule 203, which includes offences such as the repeated use of abusive and insulting language and adopting an aggressive attitude towards match officials or calling their integrity into question.

McCall, who has until 1pm on Wednesday to challenge the decision, was “amazed and angered” by his dismissal by referee Craig Thomson.

He wrote this week: “When coming off the park, I calmly spoke to Craig and said I was disappointed he had not used his game intelligence to award us a free-kick after obviously coming to the wrong conclusion by awarding the corner. My final comment of ‘when you see it on TV, you will be embarrassed’ is the quote I was sent to the stands for.”

Meanwhile, Aberdeen manager Craig Brown has warned his players not to get carried away with their cup win over Motherwell as they prepare to return to Fir Park.

The Dons stretched their unbeaten run to 13 games with the 2-1 triumph in Lanarkshire last weekend. However, that was their first win over Motherwell for three-and-a-half years and the home side are looking to keep the pressure on Rangers in the race for second place in the Clydesdale Bank Premier League.

Brown said on the club’s official website: “I don’t think last week’s game will have any bearing on this week’s game. They’re totally different games, totally different tournaments and I am certain Motherwell will be looking to maintain their exceptional league record.

“We have to be totally focused on the job and not for a second thinking that because we won last week we just have to turn up to win this week.”

Aberdeen are arguably favourites as Motherwell are struggling for available players at the back. Centre-backs Shaun Hutchinson and Tim Clancy are suspended while Stephen Craigan is a doubt with an Achilles problem and Steven Saunders is still to return from his long-term injury.

Motherwell midfielder Keith Lasley is suspended after receiving a red card for the late tackle that put Dons midfielder Fraser Fyvie out of this week’s game, although Brown will welcome Gavin Rae back from being cup-tied.

“They are not nearly as depleted as we are,” the Aberdeen manager said. “It is testament to the players that we got a victory because we were undoubtedly depleted last week and we will be depleted again this week.” He added: “The priority is the league points. We have a mathematical chance, a fairly solid mathematical chance of the top six.”