If Celtic hadn’t picked up their second-half performance against Livingston on Sunday then another refereeing and VAR drama could have easily become big news again in Scottish football.
Kyogo Furuhashi looked to have been fouled by Mikey Devlin in the penalty box approaching half-time of the fixture but referee Don Robertson didn’t blow his whistle.
Then, strangely, despite replays clearly showing that the Japanese striker had been clipped by the Livingston defender, the VAR team at Clydesdale House didn’t intervene and send Robertson for another look at the incident.
Thankfully it didn’t turn out to be a costly flashpoint for Celtic. Three second-half goals ensured that the Bhoys picked up the points and returned to the top of the Scottish Premiership table.
However, it remains frustrating that referees in Scotland continue to botch these big calls that have the potential to make a big impact on the direction of silverware in the closing stages of the season.
Michael Stewart on Celtic penalty incident
For BBC Sportscene pundit Michael Stewart, it was a big surprise that VAR didn’t suggest that Robertson take another look at the potential penalty.
He said on Sunday night’s edition of the show: “First of all, in real-time you could clearly see there was some sort of contact but I wasn’t convinced or sure whether it was enough.
“Once you see the last angle, for me personally, that was a penalty kick. The big surprise there is how quickly VAR looked at it and passed on the message that there was nothing to see.
“It was a stoppage at that point as well so I think that VAR should’ve taken the opportunity to look at all the angles. In the last angle, you can see Kyogo gets in front, Devlin’s trying to swing to get the ball, but he doesn’t get it and he gets Kyogo in the knee and knocks him off balance.
“It should’ve been a penalty kick. Fortunately for the officials, it’s not something that ended up playing a part in the overall result. Definitely, I think Don Robertson should have been asked to go over and look at it.”
It’s spot-on analysis from Stewart and adds to the verdicts of the Sky Sports team that included Chris Sutton and Robert Snodgrass. Predictably, Kris Boyd took a barely credible contrarian view.
Kenny Dalglish was less than complimentary about the Scottish FA this morning too, firmly stating his belief they should get their own house in order before citing managers such as Brendan Rodgers for giving opinions.
With so much on the line, we can only hope that referees aren’t a factor in next week’s huge derby away to Rangers at Ibrox.
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