HEARTS manager Robbie Neilson doesn’t understand why VAR decisions took so long in his side’s loss to Celtic, saying he hopes that Scottish officials can quickly iron out the flaws in the system.
Neilson was particularly puzzled as to why it took so long to award Hearts their first penalty of the afternoon after Cameron Carter-Vickers had taken out Cammy Devlin in the box, and he fears that the technology may make the on-field officials less likely to make key decisions.
And if there continues to be such stoppages in matches, he believes that the novelty will very quickly wear off.
“There is a lot of ironing out to do,” Nielson said.
“Today we got the novelty of it and that kept everybody onside. But I think if we are going to have that in a month, three months to six months' time it’s going to become more of a hindrance than a help.
“There was discrepancies between either half. The first penalty doesn’t get given and goes to VAR.
The second one does get given.
“My worry is it takes the decision-making process, that strength to make the decision, away from the referees.
“The first one, everyone in the stadium can see it’s a penalty. The referees are getting used to it too. Was Nick waiting for VAR to confirm it to him? I don’t know.
“To me it’s a stonewaller. We shouldn’t have to wait five or six minutes to get that decision.
Hopefully it gets ironed out.
“My understanding is he was ‘unsure’. I don’t know what that means.”
Neilson was gutted not to take anything from a contest to which his players contributed so much.
“We scored three goals at home and had more opportunities but ended up taking nothing from the game,” he said.
“We get a pat on the back but ultimately nothing from the game. The goals we lost were no great goals to lose.
“First one, a deflection flicks up and then there’s a free header at the corner. Third one is two rebounds we should be reacting to a lot quicker.
“We need to defend better.”
