Mark McGhee 'embarrassed' by touchline spat

Motherwell manager Mark McGhee admitted he was glad he was kept apart from Hamilton kit man Danny Cunning during a touchline clash in his side's 1-0 derby triumph.

The pair were separated by the fourth official and stewards as they argued following the award of an 81st-minute penalty for Motherwell after Chris Cadden had gone down under Michael McGovern's challenge.

McGovern saved Louis Moult's spot-kick after a delay as referee Kevin Clancy spoke to both men, but Motherwell held on to claim three points thanks to Louis Laing's 45th-minute goal.

McGhee said: I'm a bit embarrassed by that now.Someone on their bench claimed it was a dive and I simply said, 'It wasn't a dive, he caught him', and then it kind of all kicked off from there.

I was glad he didn't get to me because he looked quite angry.''

Cunning was sent to the stand during a 2-2 draw with Motherwell in November 2009 for protesting over a decision and was subsequently handed a two-match ban.

McGhee dismissed suggestions the incident might have been gamesmanship to delay the penalty.

I think it was just blind rage,'' he said.They all want their team to win, he doesn't want his team to have a penalty against them and I'm not knocking him for it.

Obviously the penalty was delayed and maybe that contributed to Louis missing it.

I could have done with him scoring it because, with our recent history in the last minutes of games, it would have been nice to have been 2-0.

We coped with it, but we had to work hard and be vigilant. But we managed to get through it and that was a nice change.''

Laing's goal was Motherwell's first at New Douglas Park since Lukas Jutkiewicz netted an equaliser in that game in November 2009 and their win was their first since McGhee led them to a 3-0 victory earlier that year during his first spell in charge.

It's the first victory in seven years and that's important for the supporters,'' he said.

You could see how much they enjoyed it and the way they turned out here.

I said after last week's win at home there have been a few disappointments of late, so hopefully we are going some way to making up for those disappointments for the supporters.''

Hamilton have now gone 11 home games without a victory, since Dougie Imrie hit the winner against Motherwell on September 19.

Manager Martin Canning said: If we were getting dominated and battered from pillar to post I would say we were doing something wrong, but there's not a lot in the game. We created the best opportunities and should win the game.

There's not a lot I can say other than that everyone is trying as hard as we can to get us three points, but if you don't put the ball in the back of the net it's going to cost you.''

Accies had chances during an eventful first half, but Imrie missed the target from a one-on-one and Gramoz Kurtaj failed to make the most of several opportunities, while Michael Devlin headed against a post, although Motherwell also created openings.

It's a hard one to take,'' Canning said.First half I thought we had the better opportunities, Dougie is clean through, Gramoz is clean through, Dougie breaks through again with Ali (Crawford) and Carlton (Morris) supporting him and we don't look like we are going to score.

It's frustrating because there is so little in the games and so little between teams that the first goal really is important. It's frustrating when you have the opportunities we had to get it and don't take it.''