THE task of making sense of what has been a bruising week has proven difficult to most at Fir Park.

Relentless punishment was meted out just six days ago in Aberdeen, bringing with it several mental scars that will take some time to heal. Especially for those who were inside Pittodrie to witness it.

For Mark McGhee, the last week has been particularly hard to take for varying reasons.

No manager wants to see their team embarrassed, yet McGhee had to deal with that reality while standing in the spotlight himself. The Well boss was of course sent to the stand midway through the second half following words with fourth official John McKendrick.

However, one of the most difficult parts of the night on a personal level was the personal abuse directed towards the former Aberdeen icon by the home crowd, goading which only increased when he was forced to sit among them as his team were dismantled on the park.

In the aftermath, assistant James McFadden leapt to the defence of his gaffer who was even filmed and heckled by one home fan, claiming he deserved more respect.

Speaking out about it for the first time, McGhee himself revealed sleepless nights have kept him awake as he replays the events of last Wednesday.

"Oh yes. Absolutely," he said. "I've tried to work it out.

"I had a meeting on Friday with the players and there were one or two home truths about certain things that I think resulted in partly the response and performance on Saturday.

"We are still a good group and I think that showed against Celtic [when Motherwell lost 2-0 on Saturday]. You can't go to Parkhead as individuals, you have to come here as a team.

"I'm not going to say too much about what happened on Wednesday night other than my overwhelming feeling about the thing is unfairness.

"I just feel gutted, I feel the whole episode was so unfair that I still maintain I did nothing to deserve either to be sent to the stand or deserve the treatment that I got.

"For me, that's the end of it."

McGhee is of course in his second spell as manager at Fir Park and admits he still has ambitions on extending that stay beyond the summer when his contract expires.

He and McFadden both have deals up at the end of the season, and the Motherwell manager is keen for both to still be in place for the start of the next campaign.

"We all hope to be at the club next year. That's something that will be discussed as we go," said McGhee, who revealed he is bringing former No.2 Steve Robinson back to the club to join his coaching team.

"Faddy knows that. I think he's made a great start as an assistant to me and now Steve is coming back.

"One thing is that we don't operate with a hierarchy. We are a team. Steve has been part of it before and will be again, Faddy is in it too and the pair will work well together.

"We will be a strong coaching team with Steve back. It's only positive and we will see what happens beyond that."

As McGhee eluded to, some pride was restored through a 2-0 reverse at Parkhead, which in the grand scheme of things was respectable enough to steady a Motherwell ship that has yet to find a run of consistency to push them to safety.

Now with the prospect of Dundee coming to Fir Park on Saturday, McGhee believes his team can now go forward with belief again.

"There was a big test coming here given the form Celtic have been in and the results they've been getting at Celtic Park," he said.

"But we believe in the players. We still can't work out what happened the other night in Aberdeen. Maybe nobody is giving Aberdeen enough credit who were brilliant on the night.

"We shouldn't underestimate how good they were to beat us the way they did but we still look at ourselves and say the nature of a lot of the goals was diabolical.

"It wasn't like us. We lose bad goals but not the way we did the other night.

"The underlying thing for me was that we were in good form. It was important to make sure Wednesday night was just an aberration and go to Celtic disciplined, determined and try to get something out of the game.

"What we have got out is confidence to go into the coming games with some self belief and optimism."