Motherwell boss Mark McGhee has denied his club's ground-share with Gretna was behind Wednesday's postponed SPL clash with Celtic at Fir Park.The fixture, called off less than an hour before the scheduled kick-off, was the third match to be postponed at the ground in the past eight days.

Gretna moved their Scottish Cup fourth-round replay against Morton to Palmerston Park in Dumfries after that also fell victim to a waterlogged pitch - 24 hours after Well's cup tie against Hearts had gone ahead.

But McGhee believes the fact that only one area of the pitch was unplayable on Wednesday shows the problem is more specific.

The area in front of the East Stand was flooded and offered no bounce during referee Charlie Richmond's late pitch inspection.

Motherwell have also moved their reserve games away from Fir Park to compensate for the extra games played there by Gretna, whose Raydale Park ground does not meet SPL standards.

McGhee said: "It's only one area - the rest of the pitch is in really good condition as far as a match being able to be played.

"It's only one area and that requires investment; it's do with the sub-base of the pitch, and investment in the drainage."

With the wet weather continuing last night after the postponement, and snow forecast later this week, the fifth-round cup clash with Dundee at Fir Park could also be put back.

But McGhee is not worried about his team's European charge being derailed by a fixture backlog.

He said: "We haven't got a situation yet where it's Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday, Wednesday.

"We don't want any more games off - but at the moment I'm not too concerned about that."

Celtic boss Gordon Strachan was deflated by the late postponement.

He said: "We thought we were in the zone mentally. We understood the pitch was going to be bad and had picked a team according to that, still leaving some people that could play football in the team.

"Our 'pack' was a bit heavier than normal - and we were ready for it."

There was confusion over the reason for the pitch being passed fit at 3pm by fourth official Iain Brines, before being unplayable hours later without a significant rainfall in between.

But Strachan admitted there was no way the game could have gone ahead.

"For the supporters it's horrific," he said.

"What they enjoy is watching football - they do enjoy tackles - but I don't think they enjoy a farce, and it might have been like that.

"There were areas we could play but at least a third of the pitch where it wouldn't be possible."

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