Once again, Scottish football produced another dramatic weekend of action, as Celtic dropped costly points at home to Hibernian.
It was another rusty, abject and frustrating performance from Martin O’Neill’s side, with Auston Trusty’s red card after 74 minutes proving to be a turning point because the scores were level at the time.
The call to send Trusty off for seemingly whacking the arm of Jamie McGrath during a Celtic corner even left Ally McCoist annoyed, who urged the powers that be to ‘get rid of VAR’, as Scottish football had a ‘terrible’ weekend when it comes to officiating.
McCoist didn’t hold back in how he felt about it all by calling those in VAR ‘inept’ at their jobs, as Trusty will now miss Celtic’s trip to Rangers at the weekend.
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Ally McCoist and Ray Parlour slam the call to send off Auston Trusty against Hibernian
Celtic ended up getting a taste of their own medicine because Kai Andrews would score a late winner three minutes from time to help Hibernian win at Parkhead for the first time since 2010.
But there is no doubt that the red card played its part, with Ray Parlour adding on talkSPORT that what you saw between Trusty and McGrath ‘happens every game’ from corners.
Before McCoist continued his furious rant at the referees, VAR, and making mistakes even after they have seen a replay ‘seven, eight, and nine times.’
McCoist: “Terrible decision. It’s a terrible, terrible decision. The first thing you would say is that the Hibs player doesn’t cover himself with glory. He doesn’t cover himself with glory by going down.
“But come on, guys? It’s a terrible, terrible decision. Nobody can come on and tell me ‘violent conduct.’ Nobody can come on and say, ‘Oh, it’s violent conduct’, because it isn’t. The guy is holding him, and he puts his hand down to get rid of him.”
Parlour: “It happens every game. Every game in the corners. Of course it does. Some of them are grappling. It happens all the time.”
McCoist: “See the people who are doing our VAR. They are just inept. They just aren’t good.”
Parlour: “Are they watching something else?”
McCoist: “We need to get rid of it. We have to get rid of VAR because they are embarrassing themselves. They are actually embarrassing themselves.
“The officiating at the weekend in Scotland was absolutely horrendous. We brought in VAR to help them. It’s actually shown them up. They are looking at it.
“See if a referee made a mistake. You go, ‘that’s fine, he made a mistake, or he got it wrong.’ But if somebody is sitting and watching it seven, eight and nine times, and still getting it wrong. What chance have we got?”
Benjamin Arthur or Dane Murray?
Liam Scales now needs a centre-back partner for Celtic’s away trips to Ibrox and the rearranged clash at Pittodrie.
It’s going to be either January signing Benjamin Arthur or academy product Dane Murray, unless O’Neill goes really left-field with his pick.
Hopefully, the Celtic boss pushes for Arthur because Celtic fans have already seen what Murray is all about, and that game against Hearts under Brendan Rodgers back in October is still in the minds of supporters.
Plus, the Hoops need some freshness at the heart of defence.
Hopefully, this Trusty red is a blessing in disguise, and it allows Arthur to step forward and shine in the green and white colours.
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