Jim Goodwin had denied claims that Dundee United attempted 'mind games' ahead of their 1-1 draw with Rangers on Saturday.
The Tannadice side departed their stadium at 9.30am on Saturday morning, but due to severe weather conditions caused by Storm Bert, they didn't arrive at Ibrox until just before 3pm.
Kick-off was delayed until 3.45pm, with the officials having to hurry United along to finish their warm-up to get the game started at that time.
“I really wasn't trying to be clever - I just was stating the obvious," he told the media. "I think it's something that managers say before every time they play Celtic or Rangers away from home.
“We know the expectation that's on those two teams and we know that the fans can be quite fickle at times if things aren't going according to plan.
“I’ve got a lot of respect for Philippe Clement and it wasn't a case of disrespecting anybody.
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“I was just stating the obvious. You know, we go there and we try to quieten the crowd.
“We try to frustrate Rangers, try and deny them space, and all of those things.”
He continued: “We were very honest about the situation and there was no hiding from the fact the weather conditions were terrible all over the country.
“We normally leave Tannadice about 10am but we brought the time forward to 9.30am.
“We were expecting traffic but we didn't anticipate the fact that there was going to be accidents on the road that were going to actually shut down the major routes.
“So instead of our bus being able to go towards Perth, it then had to go through Edinburgh.
“Then the Queensferry Crossing was closed as well, which then obviously created even more traffic on the other road.
“So we couldn't really do a great deal else. I know people talk about not staying over and stuff like that.
“We don't tend to stay over for these games because it is a little over an hour on the bus, I don't think it’s worthy of a night in the hotel.
“We do that for Ross County when we go up the Dingwall, but I can assure everybody there was nothing sinister in anything that happened."
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