VAR has been hitting the headlines over the past few weeks as the refereeing video technology continues to miss some of the big calls in Scottish football.
Celtic have been subjected to many dubious calls from the video ref over the past two seasons and this season has been no exception.
However, the most recent one at Hibs involving Martin Boyle’s dive is still eating away at Hibs boss, Nick Montgomery.
Montgomery said [Daily Record print edition page 44], “The inconsistency is something that baffles everyone. Certain incidents go to the monitor.
“On the weekend, away at Aberdeen, that (a penalty) would give us a chance to make it 2-1 to us, put us back in the lead. the complexion of the game changes.
“In the Celtic game, it’s a clear and obvious error when the Martin Boyle penalty appeal isn’t given. If we score that goal, it puts us 2-1 up against Celtic, in a game where we were doing well.
“It’s disheartening. It is nice to get an apology. But it’s hard to understand how when the system is there to ensure there is no clear and obvious error, that there was a clear and obvious error.”
Let it go Nick. It was a dive. Boyle made a meal of the most minimal of contact and threw himself to the ground in theatrical fashion.
The SFA Head of Referees, Crawford Allan, published results of a recent VAR review on the BBC where they highlighted 13 errors made by the review panel and the Martin Boyle incident was not mentioned.
Whether that was because the report was compiled before the Hibs game or whether it was deemed as being not a VAR error is something that needs looked at however, it has been universally agreed upon by almost all pundits that Boyle dived and VAR called it correctly.
In other news, ‘Privately’… How Celtic really feel about the criticism aimed at Peter Lawwell
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