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 Pensioner and Motherwell manager Craig Brown was taken aside and spoken to by the police after an altercation with a visiting Odense official during Thursday night's Europa League game at Fir Park. The 70-year-old explained that he had thrown a punch after being pushed by Kim Brink, one of the Danish side's directors, after Well were awarded a late penalty during their 1-0 second-leg defeat. Brink, who had arrived at the dugout area late in the game, was seen to barge into Brown, sending the former Scotland boss off balance, before the Well boss responded. Brown, whose side missed a host of chances as they fell to a 3-1 aggregate defeat, said: ''The police have spoken to us. I think it was their sporting director that got a bit carried away. I don't know why but he came to our dugout. I think he was a bit displeased. We had a wee bit of a disagreement, putting it euphemistically. I got a shove and I had a retaliatory punch. I'm a calm guy but if anyone is old enough to remember when I played the game, I was accused of being quite aggressive. I don't want to get messed about and I wasn't going to be messed about. The police spoke to me and they spoke to him afterwards. They are taking no further action and he has apologised, he said it was uncharacteristic and the police thought it was not behaviour befitting a visiting official. They asked me if I wanted to take the thing any further and I said no. You want to keep these things in football and, anyway, it could have been the other way around.''
 Brown was able to laugh off the unsavoury incident despite his side's frustrating defeat. he said: ''I fancied myself. If it had been Archie Knox he might not have wanted to continue the dialogue. It wasn't a big deal, it was handbags. I don't know what his problem was, I think he was annoyed we got a penalty. I don't know why because we were calm throughout the match.'' Brown felt his side should have progressed after missing numerous chances, including Jamie Murphy's penalty, against nine-man Odense. Brown said: ''Over the two legs, we were the better team. 'But I would rather have a lucky victory than get the credit for getting a defeat. We did well without getting a wee break or having the clinical finish required.''
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