Gutted St Mirren boss Stephen Robinson believes Celtic’s VAR penalty award was the pivotal moment in their Scottish Cup defeat.
The Buddies were only losing 1-0 at Parkhead with 15 minutes to go after Daizen Maeda’s opener for the Hoops. Ange Postecoglou’s men were on top but searching for a second goal as Saints hung on. But that all changed when ref Steven McLean used VAR to punish Richard Taylor for stopping a Liel Abada shot with his arm on the goal-line.
The defender was sent off and Reo Hatate tucked away the spot kick. And Celtic’s subs then took control, as Matt O’Riley, Oh and Hatate with a second took the game away from St Mirren. Afterwards, Robinson said: “For 75 minutes there was nothing between the teams, which is the greatest credit I can pay to my players. They brought on three players and scored four goals. That shows the level of quality they’ve got. But the decision changes the game. We had limited them to very few opportunities in the first half and got punished for that mistake. But on 75 minutes things changed completely.
“Whether it’s the right decision or the wrong decision, I don’t know, I haven’t seen it. After that, they’re a hard enough side to play with eleven and they open us up. We had a real go. It’s hard for me to ask any more of the players. But Celtic have top players who came on and changed the game for them.”
McLean took a few minutes to reach his decision after checking the monitor on the touchline. And Robinson questioned whether Saints should actually have been awarded a free-kick before Celtic’s chance.
He said: “It took a long time for it to be a clear and obvious error. Where does Richard put his arm? I’m not sure. The other thing is, was it a foul on Alex Gogic in the build-up? That’s what I was questioning. The referee wasn’t asked to check that.
“Are the referees refereeing the game or is the guy sitting with VAR refereeing the game? I don’t know any more. It’s not Steven’s fault if he’s not been asked to check that. I specifically asked the fourth official if we could check for a foul on Gogic because our boys were adamant. It sounds like sour grapes but it’s not. It’s a case of is the referee refereeing the game or is it someone else.
“It’s tough to take. Don’t take anything away from Celtic, they blew us away in the last 15 minutes. But we deserve credit and we’ll take it into the last few games of the season and try to finish in the top six. Considering where the club was when we took over, that would be an unbelievable achievement for this group and the staff.”
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