VAR will make decisions black and white, we were told.
But plenty of punters - not to mention managers - were left seeing red with the technology after it’s big roll out. Anyone who thought VAR would take the heat off our officials have been proven wrong after just ONE weekend!
Celtic fans were spitting over a disallowed goal and non-penalty award against Hearts while Jambos boss Robbie Neilson bemoaned the time it took to award his side two spot kicks and Motherwell gaffer Steven Hammell couldn’t believe it wasn’t used to check what he felt was a blatant penalty for his side against Aberdeen. Stevie Drennan, Condorrat, said: “After watching Hearts v Celtic I wonder if there’s any point in VAR. Why was Tony Ralston's goal chopped off? Why was the handball no penalty? Why was Abada's 'offside goal' not checked?. It will be just be the same biased referees making decisions hiding in a room.”
Denis Bruce, Bishopbriggs, said: “There were no doubts that Celtic did concede two penalties and were rightly punished for those errors. But could referee Nick Walsh explain why he did not go to look at the incident of handball involving Michael Smith on VAR just to show that not only justice was done but was seen to be done instead of just accepting the word of those guardians of VAR when he was the referee responsible for making the decisions? It was a thrilling game to watch but it was marred by the length of time it took to process some of the disputed incidents.”
Ben Casey emailed: “Can anyone explain how a ref booed off at Parkhead last week after a dreadful performance is put in charge of VAR involving the same club just seven days later? Only in Scotland. They got all the Hearts decisions correct but were woefully inept when it came to decisions for their opponents.”
And David Bryce, Troon, added: “Celtic got away with one today. I thought our defence was absolutely shocking all day. However Walsh tried everything to stop us winning the game. They disallowed a genuine goal for Ralston and a stonewall penalty. What’s the point in VAR if the referees monitoring it are clueless? These are simple decisions.”
Motherwell fan Davie Kirkpatrick emailed: “I thought VAR was supposed to check every big penalty box incident? So why was the button not pressed when Ricki Lamie was fouled in the Aberdeen box for what could have been an important penalty?”
Rangers fans had not time for slating VAR - not when they’re so angry with the performance of their team and, more to the point, boss Gio van Bronckhorst
Robert Livingstone, Palm Beach, said: “Rangers fans are screaming blue murder, the abysmal performances have been the same week after week and the team have just stopped playing. No more excuses, Van Bronkhorst's position is now untenable. The board have to go cap in hand to QPR for Michael Beale before the point of no return is reached. You wonder what's going on in the boardroom is it a case of see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil?”
Jamie Thompson, Clydebank, added: “Van Bronckhurst has to go. This so-called Rangers team is an utter disgrace. We can do better they said, well Rangers fans we deserve better than this lot. New manager please.”
Hibs fan Martin Whigham emailed to vent after his side lost a third game in a row at home to St Johnstone in front of their biggest home support for 33 years on Friday. He said: “Full house and once again the fans are let down by a team who have no talent no drive and no passion, embarrassing.”
Finally Ronnie Conway, Mauchline, called to pay tribute to Rangers great Jimmy Millar who passed away on Thursday. He said: “I’d just like to say how sorry I was to hear of Jimmy's passing. Another legend gone. Thanks for the memories and enjoy the patter up there with the old bears. Rest easy big man.”
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