Motherwell manager Mark McGhee faces potential lengthy ban after Aberdeen defeat

MOTHERWELL manager Mark McGhee could potentially be facing a lengthy touchline ban on the back of a miserable night in Aberdeen.

The former Aberdeen boss was sent to the stand during his team’s 7-2 defeat at Pittodrie on Wednesday and then reacted angrily towards Dons fans.

And he could be in further trouble after claiming he had been the victim of an “agenda” as he criticised fourth official John McKendrick, accusing him of being “aggressive and hostile”.

The Scotland assistant manager was ejected from the dugout by referee Alan Muir after an hour on the basis of McKendrick’s advice.

McGhee declared himself “absolutely disgusted and horrified by the attitude of the fourth official”.

He added: “Before a ball was kicked, he was causing issues that didn’t exist.”

Asked if he would be speaking to the Scottish Football Association’s head of referees, John Fleming, McGhee continued: “John Fleming? I’ll be speaking to a lawyer. I can only think there is an agenda.”

After being sent to the stand, the former Aberdeen player angrily ordered a fan to stop filming him on his mobile phone. The footage has since been widely shared on social media.

McGhee is already sitting on a suspended one-match ban after admitting using “offensive, abusing, and/or insulting language” towards referee John Beaton and a steward at Dens Park earlier this season after Motherwell felt they had been denied a clear goal.

McGhee had blamed an “overzealous bouncer” for the dispute in the tunnel but he served a two-match ban, one of which was meant to be the rearranged game against Aberdeen in December, but the game was abandoned because of floodlight failure.

The 59-year-old could now be on the end of further punishment for both his dismissal and his post-match comments and is likely to receive correspondence from the SFA.

But his immediate concern will be to improve Motherwell’s defensive play ahead of Saturday’s trip to Celtic Park.

Motherwell were 4-0 down by half-time at Aberdeen and McGhee will focus on communication as well as the basic defensive errors.

“Too many people had bad nights so you have to grin and bear it,” he told the club’s YouTube channel.

“We have another game on Saturday where we have to pick ourselves up and find a rationale of going to Parkhead and thinking we can do better than that against a team who, with no offence to Aberdeen, at the moment are a lot stronger even than Aberdeen. So we have a big job on Saturday.

“We have been to Parkhead lots of times and done well. We are a team that can just as easily do well after doing badly and just as easily do badly after doing well. So we have to put this behind us quickly.”