Mark McGhee rages at ref after Motherwell defeat

Motherwell manager Mark McGhee claimed his side were on the end of another late injustice after Jordan Roberts struck an injury-time William Hill Scottish Cup winner for Inverness.

Roberts used his body to knock Morgaro Gomis off the ball before firing home from 25 yards to clinch a 2-1 fifth-round win at Fir Park and McGhee insisted it was a foul.

McGhee was raging at Steven McLean, revealing he kicked the referee's door, after his side lost a costly late goal for the third time in eight days.

A soft penalty denied Motherwell victory at Dundee last weekend and they fell to a deflected injury-time strike against Partick Thistle on Tuesday.

McGhee said: The boy has barged him down, we are a man down and the boy has gone and scored. It's every week we are coming in and talking about the referee at the last point in the game.''

When asked if he had spoken to McLean, he said: No, I kicked his door. We are absolutely gutted. How can I criticise the players? I can't criticise them.

We just keep doing what we are doing and eventually we will get a break and eventually a referee will give a good decision in our favour, or even a bad decision in our favour.''

McGhee matched Caley Thistle's five-man midfield by dropping top goalscorer Louis Moult and was satisfied with his team's performance.

Home defender Stephen McManus put Carl Tremarco's low cross through his own net in the 39th minute, but his header set up Scott McDonald to level from a well-worked corner midway through the second half.

We set out to do what we done, we did it really well,'' McGhee said.They are a difficult team to play against. Tactically I always feel Inverness and Celtic are the most difficult teams to play against because they play a different shape.

You've got to take care of that third midfielder with them or they will batter you.

We would have been out-passed, we would never have got the ball, we would have undermined our confidence, the crowd would have been on top of us from the beginning.

We were disappointed to lose the first goal as we did, but we played our way back into it, we got the goal and I was quite satisfied to go up the road and take them on again.

Gomis is barged in the back, he goes to ground and the boy runs through and scores. We are gutted. The referee is five yards away.''

John Hughes had a different opinion on the challenge and he felt his team - and Roberts in particular - were due some luck.

The winger has yet to start a game following his summer move from Aldershot after being hit by a groin injury in July and the cup tie was only his third appearance for Caley Thistle.

He has had a tortuous time since coming to the club in terms of groin problems,'' Hughes said.

He has had operations, rehab, broke down, rehab, broke down. Never got a chance to get going. He still probably needs game time.

So for all his problems and the hard work he has put in, it was fitting he got the goal. He has got that goal in his locker.''

On the incident with Gomis, Hughes said: I never really saw it to be honest.

So much has gone against us this season, sometimes you are looking over your shoulder. We have had a lot of bad luck this year so maybe it's about time a wee bit of luck went our way, if it is a free-kick.

You are allowed to use your body and your muscles, that's why you go to the gym. You can put your body in and roll a guy, and that's what I think he did.''

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