St Mirren boss Jim Goodwin claims Shaun Maloney lacked the commensurate respect for his Saints side following their 1-0 win over Hibernian on Saturday.
Connor Ronan – on loan from Wolves – scored the only goal of the cinch Premiership fixture at Easter Road.
The defeat left Hibs without a win in five league games and afterwards, boss Maloney said: “We should have scored, three, four, five goals today.”
Goodwin, whose side face St Johnstone on Wednesday night, was not impressed with that summation.
“Clean sheets are important and thankfully Hibs didn’t score the five goals that their manager thought they should have done,” said the Paisley boss, who was pleased to report that striker Eamonn Brophy’s injury was not as bad as first feared.
“I’ve known Shaun Maloney a long time and I am certainly not going to get into a war of words with any manager publicly but I have to say, I was slightly disappointed with those comments because I thought my players deserved a bit more respect than that to be honest with you.
“There was a certain highlights show as well on Saturday night that I thought did us a complete disservice as well.
“You would swear that my boys didn’t kick a ball. Hibs hardly got out of their own half in the first 45 minutes.
“I was very honest afterwards and said Hibs made a good tactical change at half-time and we struggled for the first 10 or 15 minutes, Jak Alnwick makes a save that he has to make but I thought over the piece that we deserved to win the game.
“There are many ways to win a game. Sometimes I think managers try to put a gloss on their own performances.
“My players were outstanding on the day, they never let Hibs get any rhythm in the game and thoroughly deserved the victory.”
While St Mirren goalkeeper Alnwick said: “I saw a few things saying they battered us and should have won four or five-nil, a load of rubbish, to be honest.”
Maloney denied any suggestions that disrespected either Goodwin or his side.
He said: “I’d never purposely disrespect Jim. I think he does a fantastic job at St Mirren and I’ve known him a long time, from when I was 15, 16 (at Celtic).
“That was just my opinion of the game. I thought, with the chances we created, we should have scored three or four.
“Chris Mueller had one that was given offside when he was one v one, which was incorrect.
“I definitely wouldn’t disrespect Jim and St Mirren. They worked extremely hard and took their chance when they had it.
“That’s football. They took their chance, we didn’t.
“Just from my side of it, I thought we should have won the game with our performance in the second half. That’s my opinion.”
Meanwhile, Goodwin received some good news on the injury front as it emerged that top goal scorer Brophy, who hobbled off against Motherwell last Tuesday night, could be back in three or four weeks.
Goodwin said: “We had some positive feedback from the specialist yesterday.
“The MRI scan initially was a wee bit concerning but it looks as if it might not be as long as what was first feared.
“We are hoping that it is only going to be maybe three to four weeks as opposed to eight weeks which was feared initially.”
