Gord will see red if painted as the villain

The Celtic manager could be banished to the stand for two matches after Stuart Dougal sent him off, along with Hearts' assistant boss John McGlynn, three minutes before the break.

They had been involved in a shouting match after Dougal stopped play to allow Julien Brellier treatment.

Strachan said: "I'll have to wait and see what comes in the report. The fourth official (Calum Murray) and referee will have to get together and decide what happened.

"I think I was sent to the stand on the fourth official's say so. It's ironic that last week was the first time I complained about a fourth official. I'm sure that had nothing to do with it."

When Strachan asked, Dougal refused to explain his decision either at half or full-time. He admits he did use industrial language, but did not direct it at anyone. And, while he never stepped outside his technical area, McGlynn clearly entered Celtic's, where he clashed with Celtic assistant boss Gary Pendrey.

Strachan said: "It was basically a nothing. I think the red hair gets spotted in a melee. I was told at half-time the ref would give me an explanation. Then I was told at full-time he was not going to speak to me.

"I got good back-up the way I asked it, in a composed, respectful manner. People from Setanta were there with cameras and caught it."

The catalyst for Strachan's anger was the fact Dougal blew for play to halt as Celtic attacked, so that Brellier could receive attention, despite the fact that earlier in the game, when Ibrahim Tall was down, Hearts chose to push on with their attack and play was allowed to continue.

Strachan said: "It was very strange because earlier, in the same style of incident, the decision was to play on. I don't mind that, so long as it is the same both ways.

"I said towards their technical area, what do you want to do? Do you want to play on when someone gets injured, or do you want to stop the game? The boy (McGlynn) took the hump, and that was it.

"There was a bit of abuse thrown from the technical areas. I never left my area, but I am the one who goes. That's just unfortunate.

"I'm upset I let my team down by not restraining myself."

Strachan has revealed the loss of Roy Keane to retirement has not freed up a huge amount of cash as the Republic of Ireland star was only the eighth-highest earner on the books last season.

He said in his autobiography: "When Keane signed for us, a number of reports indicated he'd be on £40,000 a week and the deal would be funded partly by Dermot Desmond. Neither was correct.

"The salary we agreed with him was considerably less than that, and even then it was dependent on the number of first-team appearances he made."

Taken from Evening Times