Aiden McGeady has lifted the lid on his stormy relationship with Gordon Strachan and revealed how the former Celtic boss denied him a man of the match award after his infamous bust-up with Neil Lennon.
McGeady clashed with Lennon during a match against Dunfermline in December 2006 and the pair had to be separated by team-mate Evander Sno.
But the former Parkhead winger claimed Strachan sided with Lennon after the incident in the dressing because “he didn’t like me”.
McGeady was also suspended from the first team and fined during Strachan’s Hoops tenure as the pair didn’t see eye to eye.
And the 36-year-old Sunderland winger, speaking to BBC Scotland, revealed details of the Pars row.
He said: “So we’re winning 2-0 (against Dunfermline) and (Gordon) Strachan changed the shape and went to a 4-3-3 so I was right and their winger went down the line, beat Mark Wilson and crossed to the back post and Stephen Simmons scored I think.
“ Lenny started having a go at Artur (Boruc). Artur pushed him and Lenny carried on and looked around the pitch ready to go for someone.
“And he was like ‘Where were you there? Where were you?’. And I was like ‘Nowhere. It’s not my fault Willo (Flood) got beat. It’s not my job to tackle the winger’.
“He said ‘Who do you think you’re talking to?’. I was like ‘shut up’ and he went for me and we pushed each other.
“But it was nothing really. And in the dressing room Strachan totally backed Lenny up. Lenny was in the wrong but he totally backed him up because he didn’t like me.
“Strachan said that some guys had been doing it at the club for years and years. Seven years, not even missing a pass and then you’ve got guys like him - talking about me.
“He said ‘Aiden, you might get a few girls when you go to a nightclub because you’ve got some fancy flicks’. I’m thinking ‘What’s that got to do with anything?’.
“And just as he finished having a go at me Iain Jamieson (press officer) popped his head in the door and he said ‘Gaffer, Aiden got man of the match’ and Strachan said ‘No, he’s not getting it’.
“Darren O’Dea played that day, it was his debut and Strachan said he was man of the match so he had to go Setanta and talk to them and they gave him the bottle because I couldn’t even go out the dressing room.”
