It was an emphatic day at the office for Celtic against St Mirren but it was a match littered with big VAR calls from referee David Dickinson and video official Andrew Dallas.
Mark O'Hara put Saints ahead after Greg Taylor was deemed to have handled the ball inside the box by Dickinson after guidance from Clydesdale House. Then Charles Dunne was sent off for a foul on Kyogo as the last man but it was pulled back from a penalty to free-kick after a VAR check, although there was little debate on the red card.
Its final intervention was in the second half when Alex Gogic got a hold of Oh's shirt in the box. That was reviewed and turned into a penalty kick, which the South Korean forward converted to put the shine on a 5-1 win over St Mirren after Jota, Alistair Johnston, Liel Abada and Matt O'Riley goals. Here's the three big tech decisions during the game in Paisley.
Decision 1 - Greg Taylor's penalty
The first of the two properly contentious calls. It took a while to loop back round to it but Dickinson was eventually sent to review the call where Alex Grieve flicked the ball up onto Taylor's hand from close range. It brings up the argument of whether or not it was a natural position, where the IFAB ruling states: "For the purposes of determining handball offences, the upper boundary of the arm is in line with the bottom of the armpit. Not every touch of a player’s hand/arm with the ball is an offence.
"It is an offence if a player deliberately touches the ball with their hand/arm, for example moving the hand/arm towards the ball, touches the ball with their hand/arm when it has made their body unnaturally bigger. A player is considered to have made their body unnaturally bigger when the position of their hand/arm is not a consequence of, or justifiable by, the player’s body movement for that specific situation.
"By having their hand/arm in such a position, the player takes a risk of their hand/arm being hit by the ball and being penalised. Scores in the opponents’ goal directly from their hand/arm, even if accidental, including by the goalkeeper, or immediately after the ball has touched their hand/arm, even if accidental."
Pundit Andy Walker was furious with the call on Sky: "A ridiculous decision. Look at the position of the referee, David Dickinson. He's looking right at it, he's in the perfect position to see that and I think he calls it right.
"What do you want Greg Taylor to do with his body? What do you want him to do? What is he, half a yard away from that? I think it's a ridiculous decision to have that overturned.
"These are ridiculous decisions when you see a referee, who is ten yards away from it, and he makes the call that it's not a penalty. Then you've got Andrew Dallas at VAR who says you've made a mistake."
Decision 2 - Charles Dunne's red card and penalty
There were no complaints from Buddies boss Stephen Robinson over the red card. It was a clear human error from Dunne who paid a high price for a bad pass back to his keeper, clearly committing a last man challenge on Kyogo.
But whether or not it should have stood as a penalty is another matter. Dickinson initially said yes but a look at VAR told him no. The IFAB website states: "If a defender starts holding an attacker outside the penalty area and continues holding inside the penalty area, the referee must award a penalty kick."
Hoops hero Peter Grant wasn't so sure about the award as he linked back to the IFAB theory mentioned, with Dickinson taking VAR's word for it and not going to the monitor: "It starts outside the box but I am led to believe if it continues inside the box, then it should be an ordering off and a penalty at the other side of the pitch. I think it's a penalty to Celtic because the incident continued."
Decision 3 - Oh's penalty
This one is a bit easier to explain. Dickinson's view of the initial incident appeared to be blocked but replays clearly showed that Gogic had a handful of Oh's jersey in his fist.
It only took a few glances at the VAR monitor to see what he hadn't initially and the spot-kick was awarded for a shirt pull in the area. Walker said when asked if Gogic could have any complaints: "I don't think so, there's so many bodies in front of him (Dickinson), it's not an easy spot and it's a stupid pull of the jersey."
