CRAIG CLAY has revealed Motherwell were fired up against Celtic by their opponents' ‘lack of respect’ before last week’s Fir Park epic.

The Steelmen were eventually edged out of the game 4-3 as a result of a 90th-minute Tom Rogic winner but it was not after the Ladbrokes Premiership leaders were given a fright by their plucky hosts.

A fiery afternoon was first sparked before a ball had been kicked when Motherwell manager Mark McGhee complained to Celtic coaching staff about their side’s pre-match warm-up taking place in an inappropriate part of the pitch.

It now appears that he was not the only one as Well midfielder Craig Clay reveals.

“They were asked to warm up in the portable goals but that’s normal procedures - ever team does that in every ground,” he said. “They didn’t listen so they were told to move and rightly so.

“I think people need to show a bit of respect and adhere to the rules.

“Little things like that rile you up. Celtic have got a bit about them and you’d like to think they’d show that respect to other teams.

“It does give you that extra incentive to get one over them as you’re thinking, ‘they are coming to our place and not showing any respect’.”

Clay admits he was surprised to see his gaffer so worked up.

It may be hard to believe given what took place last Saturday and the fact McGhee was up in front of the Hampden beaks for using abusive language last month, but the 24-year-old argues his gaffer is normally a composed figure both on the touchline and on the training pitch.

“It’s good to see that passion and anger in your manager. It automatically feeds through to the players,” he said. “It was great to see and it gave us that extra bit of bite and extra bit of fight before the game.

“He’s an emotional guy. He wants his team to do well and he wants people to respect us. I’m all for it.

“He’s quite a calm guy. You get the odd bollocking from him in training if you do something wrong but it’s more about advice.

“He’s great at man management and making sure you put it right next time.”

Back to the matter in hand, Motherwell will be hoping to replicate the heroics demonstrated against Celtic when Kilmarnock come to Fir Park this afternoon.

The visitors are in sixth place in the Premiership but only two points separate them with a Lanarkshire side eager to kick on and discover some sort of momentum.

“It shows how far we’ve come. My first game against Celtic was 5-0 so it was a bit of a contrast,” said Clay.

“We got our tactics spot on. You’ve got to show Celtic respect but we got in their faces and refused to let them walk over us.

“We didn’t give them much time. Fair play, they stepped up in the second half and a few moments of class won them the points.

“But we can take a lot of positives.

“I think the performance speaks for itself. We went toe-to-toe with the best team in Scotland and were really unlucky not to take anything from the game.

“That’s the heartbreaking thing about it. To score three against Celtic and not get a point was really disappointing.

“But that performance will make a lot of teams take notice and think we have got a bit about us.”