Source: Team_Talk
Dons boss: Grassi was threatened
But McGhee insisted the Italian should not have reacted to the provocation which almost cost his side a first victory at Tannadice for almost four years.[LNB]Aberdeen bounced back from a hat-trick of SPL defeats to win 1-0 on Saturday courtesy of a 15th-minute goal from Charlie Mulgrew, the defender's fourth of the season.[LNB]They were looking comfortable until the final half-hour after Grassi picked up their seventh red card of the season for lashing out at Andy Webster following a coming together with the United captain.[LNB]McGhee claimed the home side provoked the Italian, who suffered a triple cheekbone fracture on his last visit to the city, September's Co-operative Insurance Cup quarter-final defeat at Dundee.[LNB]McGhee, who insisted Webster should also have been sent off, said: "He was being threatened all afternoon that he was going to get his face smashed.[LNB]"He reacted and he shouldn't have.[LNB]"But I think the linesman on this side could have helped us because I think he got involved in it and it's him who told the referee what happened.[LNB]"I don't think - whatever he told the referee - that he told him the full story.[LNB]"We've had another player sent off and they've only had a player booked - I can't quite understand that."[LNB]The former Dons striker added: "I used to tell people I was going to smash their face in.[LNB]"I used to come here and Heggy (Paul Hegarty) would tell me he was going to break my leg.[LNB]"It's part of the game so you don't react to it.[LNB]"You just wait for your chance and, when you get the chance, you smash their face!"[LNB]Webster said he "ran into" Grassi, describing the coming together as "much ado about nothing".[LNB]He also admitted there may have been some on-field "sledging" aimed at the Italian. "You get that everywhere you go in football," he said.[LNB]"Their fans at half-time were throwing snowballs at Nicky (Weaver) and talking to him.[LNB]"That's the mental side of it."[LNB]United caretaker boss Peter Houston, who claimed he did not see the sending-off, said: "I would have liked some of our players to smash into people in the first half.[LNB]"I wouldn't mind a couple of characters like that.[LNB]"We haven't got anybody in the dressing room - I don't think - to go and tell people they're going to smash people's faces in."[LNB]Today's result followed United's 7-1 midweek thrashing at Rangers.[LNB]"Players maybe felt sorry for themselves a wee bit from Wednesday night," said Houston, whose side twice hit the woodwork late on. "I thought we deserved to take something from the game from our second-half performance.[LNB]"However, I wasn't happy with our first-half performance."[LNB]United have now taken just one point in three matches under Houston, who withdrew from the race to succeed Craig Levein this week.[LNB]He hopes a permanent successor will be appointed before next Saturday's Active Nation Scottish Cup tie at Partick Thistle, claiming chairman Stephen Thompson had already begun interviewing candidates.[LNB]"In the next couple of days he is doing a couple and he's done one yesterday, I believe," Houston said.[LNB]"I think the best thing for the football club to get us back on a level keel again is to get the manager in."[LNB]Houston also reiterated his desire to combine his coaching work at Tannadice with a role in Levein's Scotland set-up.[LNB]He added: "That'll all depend on, A: who the new manager is, and B: will he give me the time off which is needed to go join up with them?"[LNB][LNB]
