Derek Mcinnes claimed Kilmarnock were victims of a VAR farce as their five-match unbeaten run ground to a halt.
Stevie May’ s renaissance season continued with the only goal as St Johnstone gained revenge for a Rugby Park defeat earlier in the month. Fresh from the winner at Easter Road, May’s fifth of the campaign settled a tight contest but visiting boss McInnes was angry at Craig Napier’s handling of two key decisions with VAR that swung the game away from a Killie comeback.
Napier sent off James Brown for a studs-up lunge at sub Liam Donnelly just after the hour. However, after consultation with Euan Anderson then a drawn-out look at the monitor, he downgraded to yellow. Then Napier disallowed a Donnelly goal after keeper Remi Matthews was barged to the ground – and VAR backed the whistler’s call via another check. McInnes said: “I’m disappointed in the goal that was ruled out. There was NO foul on the keeper – and if there’s any foul on Stevie, the contact is minimal.
“The keeper should punch it. He tries to catch it, spills it and the goal should stand. The keeper just needs to be stronger. There isn’t enough there for a free-kick.”
McInnes couldn’t understand why VAR meddled in Napier’s dismissal of Brown and revealed Napier wasn’t helped by footage displayed on the dugout monitor. He said: “I don’t want players to be sent off. It could be a yellow, it could be a red, it’s on the referee to interpret it.
“But to take just shy of four minutes to make the decision suggests it’s NOT a clear and obvious error. We were told VAR would only get involved for that.
“But in defence of the ref, he was given the same angle of the tackle for three and a half of those minutes. We were told there would be different angles but he kept getting the same one. It was harsh. He had to get involved with VAR and came to the decision, I disagreed
“We only got six minutes added. The check took four minutes, we had a minute to sort a disallowed goal, the physio was on twice and there were eight subs. We were told delays would be added on.”
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