Rangers boss Walter 'Wattie' Smith was last night told to pull in his trembling lip by Motherwell manager and former Celtic player Mark McGhee. Wattie's bottom lip has been trailing along the ground ever since the 0-0 draw in Wednesday's SPL match at Fir Park which saw Rangers drop two points to fall further behind champions Celtic in the title race.
In an astonishing show of undignified behaviour Smith cast aspersions on the neutrality of an assistant referee on the basis of the official's Irish surname. The raging Rangers boss went to great lengths to enunciate Mr Tom Murphy's name lest any observer should be left in doubt as to Murphy's obvious ethnicity and ergo, in Smith's mind anyway, his obvious affiliation to champions Celtic. Smith, showing great recall of this specific official's career to date also took time to mention a previous decision taken by Murphy during a Celtic match.
Murphy had flagged portly striker Kris Boyd offside during a Rangers breakaway attack but the lumbering forward carried on regardless and hit the shot even though the referee had stopped play for the infringement. As Motherwell keeper Graeme Smith and the rest of his team-mates stood watching with hands on hips the ball sailed into the net in an act which should have resulted in a yellow card for the rotund Boyd. To make matters worse for the Rangers manager the Ibrox side were even denied their customary penalty kick from the officials but to be fair to them they did deny Motherwell a stonewall penalty in the last moments.
McGhee isn't chuffed that Smith's petulant outburst has overshadowed a great showing from his team. "I have been a bit peeved because I felt our performance didn't get enough credit. I've watched a rerun of the game and even for the first 25 minutes of the second half we had 62 per cent of the possession. Against Celtic, Manchester United had 68 per cent and people were holding their breath. To do that against any of the Old Firm teams is impressive. It was only one bad decision and there was a penalty we didn't get at the end. We have bad decisions go against us in every game but I have not been bleating about it." said the 'Well gaffer.
The ex-Celt saw some similarities between the 'goal' scored by the plump Rangers striker and one he had scored himself back in his playing days "I lobbed big Packie Bonner from about 40 yards" said McGhee "and if I had not been offside I would never have done that in a million years"
Motherwell forward John Sutton, brother of hunskelper Chris, said "It didn't seem a big deal. I don't think Boyd would have pinged it in from 30 yards if he had been onside and Graeme Smith would have tried to save it. It's sour grapes. Our manager didn't let us dwell on the goal we should have had at Celtic."