Coach sues Accies after sacking.

A football coach has appeared in court seeking compensation from the Scottish Premier League team that sacked him.John McCormack rejected claims that he bullied young players and sexually harassed a female physiotherapist while assistant manager at Hamilton Accies.

He is suing the side for £93,334 at the Court of Session in Edinburgh.

The club is contesting the action and insisted that Mr McCormack, who is currently manager at Clyde, was rightly dismissed for gross misconduct.

Mr McCormack, 54, denied making a comment to players in the presence of the female physiotherapist about letting her see who had "the biggest tadger".

He told a court that he had told her to go into the dressing room to check the players for injuries and added in a flippant remark that she could examine "their tackle".

Mr McCormack said it was not made "in a sexist manner" but in "a fun sense".

I might have the odd swear word like everybody else, but my role that day was to look and encourage

John McCormack

The football coach also rejected an allegation of intimidating and bullying young players at a pre-season tournament in Oban.

He said: "I might have the odd swear word like everybody else, but my role that day was to look and encourage. If I started bullying I am going to get nothing out of anyone."

Mr McCormack said he was later told by the club chairman Ronnie McDonald that a complaint had been made about sexual harassment.

But he added that he phoned the physiotherapist who told him she never made a complaint.

Disciplinary hearings

Mr McCormack said that at a subsequent meeting he was told by the club that they would need to part company.

He said he was given no explanation whatsoever for his dismissal.

Mr McCormack, of Mount Vernon, in Glasgow, said in his action that there were no disciplinary hearings before he was dismissed by Hamilton.

He claims that the club was in breach of its agreement to employ him for a two year period when he would have earned £100,000.

Hamilton Academical FC maintain that he was employed for one football season up to May last year and was offered and accepted a salary of £30,000 a year.

The club also claim in its defence that during his brief employment Mr McCormack conducted himself in a way that was "boorishly aggressive, foul-mouthed, ill-mannered, sexist and embarrassing."

The hearing before Lord Woolman continues.

Source: BBC Sport