csconstantine.com

{ Walter Smith has backed El Hadji Diouf to survive another test of his temperament as the Senegalese forward prepares for round two of the feud with Celtic skipper Scott Brown which erupted earlier this month at Ibrox.

• Scott Brown, left, had a running battle with el Hadji diouf at Ibrox

Both players are renowned for having fuses as short as the bristles on their heads. Diouf has made it even more impossible to ignore him having this week dyed blue the narrow strip of hair on his scalp which has escaped the razor blade.

This act will do little to pacify Celtic supporters at Parkhead tomorrow, as their team prepares to host Rangers in a clash which is crucial to both club's title ambitions. These supporters have already installed Diouf as public enemy No 1 after he spat at a home supporter during a Uefa Cup quarter-final clash at Parkhead, while he was at Liverpool.

He was pursued by Brown during the Scottish Cup fifth-round clash between Rangers and Celtic a fortnight ago, before being taunted by the skipper after he had scored the equaliser in the 2-2 draw. Brown stood in front of Diouf with his arms outstretched. Celtic manager Neil Lennon later saluted both the performance and behaviour of his captain - and did so again yesterday.

Smith, however, gave a loaded response to a question which sought to divine the Rangers manager's view of Brown's actions that afternoon at Ibrox. "I'll leave other people to judge whether opposing players' actions were inflammatory or otherwise," he said, before adding that he had no fears about Diouf being caught up in the white heat of his first away match since signing on-loan from Blackburn Rovers on the last day of the transfer window.

Diouf will need to endure a much more hostile atmosphere tomorrow after enjoying a fairly comfortable introduction to Scottish football.

The four matches he has played so far have all been at Ibrox. He has mostly been unmoved by the provocation of opponents and Smith is confident Diouf can again rise above it all tomorrow, when he can expect to be baited by Brown and over 50,000 others. "I didn't speak to him a great deal before the last (Old Firm] game," said Smith. "I had a word with him, not particularly about the match. But he's an experienced enough player to know what's happened and I don't see why we should have a problem there.

"In the games he's played for us the lad hasn't done anything untoward," added Smith. "Sometimes when a player's career has been tainted by a reaction to certain situations that's the picture everybody paints of him. But we can only go by what we've seen. Everybody in an Old Firm game - and not just El Hadji Diouf - has to be aware of how their behaviour (can have an impact]."

Lennon, meanwhile, again gave solid backing to his captain's conduct and said Brown had learned there were certain lines "he cannot cross".

Agences de presses

Labels: backs, Brown, Diouf, handle, Scotsman, Smith

{ IT WAS just like watching Craig Brown's Motherwell last night - and that's something which will have pained the former Scotland manager as he sat in the Pittodrie dug-out and suffered at the hands of his old club in their first meeting with Aberdeen since his December switch.
The success for his opposite number Stuart McCall was as deserved as it was unexpected on the back of their 6-0 thrashing at Ibrox, although Aberdeen may point to red-card shown to captain Paul Hartley with the scores tied at 1-1 for their subsequent demise.

However, even before that player imbalance, for which Hartley should look at himself rather than the actions of the referee Steven McLean or booked opponent Keith Lasley against whom he crazily retaliated, the visitors seemed more constructive and threatening.

Their intent came good when Jamie Murphy raced forward and steered a low shot into the corner after being put in on goal by a misjudged header from Aberdeen defender Zander Diamond.

Until last night, the Fir Park faithful and their club seemed to have been badly missing Brown, as exemplified by the ragged nature of their performance against Rangers at the weekend. Last night, though, marked a pretty remarkable turnaround a mere three days on from that debacle.

Even losing a goal scored by Sone Aluko only two minutes in, McCall's men demonstrated commendable courage to open up and play passes and in so doing seize the initiative. Credit was due to their to manager for that, his selection proving surprisingly adventurous with Murphy in the hole behind a front two of John Sutton and Francis Jeffers, who scored Motherwell's equaliser. The tactics paid off with McCall picking up his second league win since succeeding Brown.

This was a fixture which should have been Brown's first in charge at Pittodrie but the winter weather put paid to that. Nevertheless, while the best part of two months have passed since then, he still found time to mention his debt of gratitude to the Fir Park club in his programme notes, where he said he was "led to believe we achieved the best record of any Motherwell management team during John Boyle's (12-year] reign, and by some distance".

Brown also made that point in pre-match briefings, no doubt to give any travelling fans who intended to taunt him for his treachery something to think about. He needn't have worried.

On a stinking, squally night, precious few travelled up and those who did were too cold, too drookit and, for the opening stages of this game, too down to give him the treatment meted out to the last manager to swap Lanarkshire for Grampian, Mark McGhee.

Agences de presses

Labels: Aberdeen, Brown, Craig, haunt, Motherwell, return, Scotsman