FALKIRK manager John Hughes has absolved Celtic captain Stephen McManus of blame after the collision which saw defender Dean Holden sustain a suspected double leg fracture.
Hughes was adamant that the injury could not have been helped after Holden's powerful run into the box ten minutes before half-time was halted by a McManus challenge. He joins striker Michael Higdon and goalkeeper Tim Krul on the Falkirk long-ter
m injury list.
"Celtic have two geniuses in their team – (Shunsuke] Nakamura and (Aiden] McGeady," said Hughes. "But the one guy I look up to is big Stephen McManus, especially in the way he conducts himself. He wears the armband, he's whole-hearted and he's committed. He's entitled to go for everything, and it's just unfortunate that Dean's come off on the wrong end of it."
Hughes, who watched the 1-0 defeat from the stands due to a touchline ban, lamented the absence of cutting edge in his team's performance yesterday.
"First and foremost I asked them for a performance after the last two games, and I got it," he said. "If there was anything lacking then it was cutting edge, in terms of crosses and shots. But when the boys give everything and come up short, you feel for them."
Hughes was serving his touchline ban for a previous run-in with a referees' supervisor and has still to answer another SFA charge after criticising officials in recent weeks. So it was perhaps understandable that the Falkirk manager refused to be drawn on the performance of John Underhill, yesterday's man in the middle.
Scott McDonald's winning goal was later shown to be suspiciously offside, while the hosts also had two penalty claims turned down, but Hughes said: "You can ask me about referees but I am in enough trouble. The next time I'm going to Alcatraz. I can't say too much but there is disappointment there, especially when the boys give it everything they have got.
"I haven't seen it on the television but I have to say I felt the Celtic goal was offside. Somebody said that when I see it I will be disappointed."
