Motherwell will appeal Cedric Kipre red-card

The defender was dismissed as he aimed a kick at Celtic captain Scott Brown, a decision that incensed the Motherwell dressing room.

The Fir Park side will appeal Craig Thomson's call and manager Stephen Robinson struggled to hide his irritation after watching Thomson dish out five red cards to Motherwell players this season - including one game in which he sent three Fir Park players off.

“I think everybody in the room here knows that it wasn’t a sending off," he said.

“I know you all know that.

“Two people burst together. If there had been two yellow cards out of it you might have thought it was harsh.

“It’s petulance from both of them. Scott Brown gives him a little shove, Cedric brushes his calf against him. I’ve seen it this time and I’m 100% certain of that.

"It wasn’t a red card.

”Once I sit down and look at it [we will cosider an appeal]. I know it certainly wasn’t a stamp as was being indicated. If that was the reason for the red card then it certainly wasn’t that.

“But I’ll sit down with the powers that be while me and Alan Burrows [chief executive] will speak with the board and we’ll see where we take it.”

Asked about Thomson's record against Motherwell, Robinson wold only say: "Five red cards from the same referee, and he’s not sent off another Premiership player, you take out of that what you will.

“I’m not saying anything.”

It was reported that Robinson and Brown clashed in the tunnel at the interval, something the Motherwell chief denied.

"I didn’t need to say anything," he said. "Everybody in the ground saw that it wasn’t a red card.

“I’ve got nothing more to say about it.

“In the worst case both boys could’ve been booked and everybody would’ve thought it was maybe harsh.. It wasn’t a red card.

“What I want to talk about was how good we were, how organised we were, epitomising the spirit we’ve got at this football club.

"I didn’t need to [say anything]. It wasn’t Scott Brown who made a decision, so I didn’t need to make my feelings clear.

“I think everybody in the ground knows.

“What happened was that it spoiled a very, very good match."

Brown appeared to push Kipre as he went to get up before the defender aimed a kick at the Celtic midfielder. Brown escaped sanction for his part in the incident but that in itself did not irk the Motherwell manager.

”I don’t want to see anybody booked," he said. "But it was two people coming together, they brushed each other.

“I don’t think Scott Brown should’ve been booked and I don’t think Cedric should’ve been booked.

“There was absolutely nothing in it.

“And it’s annoying – people pay money to come and watch the game.

“It was a really good game of football and I thought we were taking the game to them. Most people sit off Celtic, but we didn’t and I thought we did so well.

“Cedric is a big big boy. He’s about 20 foot wide and 200 foot tall.

“He’s a gentle giant, he;s got no malice in him. He will go to the next level, he will go to a top top level when he gets more aggression in his game.

“It was two people bursting together.

“I have to pyut my arm around him. He’s distraught.

“I think we all felt we could go and take the game to them again in the second half. That’s the disappointing bit.

“The decision ruined the match as a contest. There were two good teams going for it and we ended up having to sit back which was inevitable against a team of that quality.”