Motherwell pay the penalty as Celtic dig out hard-fought win

MOTHERWELL manager Craig Brown felt Shaun Maloney went down “very, very easily” to win Celtic the penalty that edged them to a 1-0 victory at Fir Park.

Celtic had the better of the SPL clash but were struggling to make the breakthrough until Maloney fell inside the box under pursuit from Steven Saunders to allow Ireland’s Daryl Murphy to net a 73rd-minute winner.

Dougie McDonald sent off the Motherwell right-back and, although Brown felt the teenager should have held off from making the challenge, he thought both Maloney and referee were quick to act.

He said: “I think it was easy to give. It’s a through ball, two players are running for possession. There is a challenge from Steven Saunders on Shaun Maloney but his legs quickly left the ground, when you see it on TV.

“Dougie McDonald is not in the best position, there are a couple of players in between him and the incident, but he was very quick to give it so we have got to accept that.

“There is bodily contact there, I saw that, but Maloney went down very, very easily.

“He went down very softly but I’m not wanting to talk about a player from another team. I’m faulting our own player for giving the referee an opportunity to give the penalty.”

Brown added: “When a player, especially an Old Firm player, is going into the box, he is going away from goal and is on his weaker side, you don’t need to make a challenge. Just run alongside him and let him make the keeper make a save.

“It would have been difficult to score from where Shaun Maloney was. But Saunders is an outstanding player. He will learn from it but we lost a couple of points we might have had.”

Celtic were able to make five changes following their 4-0 Europa League defeat by Utrecht with Fraser Forster and Emilio Izaguirre making their debuts.

On-loan Newcastle goalkeeper Forster had little to do but Izaguirre looked agile in defence and attack, leading Brown to compare him to former Brazil left-back Roberto Carlos.

MOTHERWELL: Randolph, Saunders, Craigan, Reynolds, Hammell (Page 34), Humphrey (Forbes 72), Jennings (Blackman 46), Hateley, Lasley, Sutton, Murphy.

CELTIC: Forster, Cha, Loovens, Majstorovic, Izaguirre, Forrest, Brown, Ledley, Murphy, Samaras (McCourt 67), Maloney.

Referee: D McDonald (Scotland).