This piece is an extract from yesterday's McDiarmid Memo newsletter, which is emailed out at 6pm every Thursday.

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After Saturday’s Scottish Cup shocker at Airdrie, it was a real positive to see a reaction from St Johnstone as they turned out against Aberdeen last night. 

The weekend’s disaster at the Excelsior Stadium was by far the worst performance of Craig Levein’s tenure so far, but the manager and squad did well to park the display in the past as they bounced back at McDiarmid Park on Wednesday. 

The first half in Perth against the Dons was far from easy on the eye, but Saints looked by far the better team in the second period and VAR ultimately came to Aberdeen’s rescue and cost us what would have been three hugely important points. 

I have always tried to give the video technology the benefit of the doubt, but last night the entire officiating of the game was just a complete mess. 

Those at the game or watching on the club’s PPV stream will be aware of the shambles that unfolded and if you didn’t see any of the action, I urge you to avoid the highlights for your own sanity. 

Graham Carey looked to have opened the scoring on 49 minutes when his impressive volleyed finish caught out Aberdeen keeper Kelle Roos at his near post. Celebrations were concluded, both teams were ready to restart the match and then the joy was sucked out of the majority of the stadium. 

“There is a VAR check in progress for a possible foul,” - even the Aberdeen players looked baffled as to what was going on. 

Replays showed Liam Gordon and Aberdeen midfielder Jamie McGrath both going for a 50/50 ball inside the penalty area before the ball fell to Carey to score. It was clear to see by all that it was nothing more than a coming together, football is a contact sport at the end of the day. 

To make things worse referee John Beaton had a clear view of the incident and decided, in real-time, there was no need to award a free-kick. VAR is only meant to intervene if there is a “clear and obvious error” on show when reviewing an incident, but for some reason, video official Steven Kirkland decided to step in. 

It was completely the wrong call by Kirkland to even highlight the incident, and for Beaton to then overrule his initial assessment makes it all the more baffling. 

Saints are rightly fuming and are set to write to the SFA to seek answers over the use of VAR during the fixture. Although the club will likely get nothing out of the communication, it is important for the wider game. VAR simply cannot continue as it is in its current format. 

After the goal was cruelly ruled out, St Johnstone were then dealt another blow when captain Gordon was once again penalised, but this time in his own box. 

The defender was adjudged to have fouled Slobodan Rubezic after a corner was flicked on into the box. Again, Beaton had a clear view of the incident in question, but he deemed the contact not to be worthy of a penalty. VAR thought otherwise though and after reviewing the footage Beaton was urged to take a second look. 

There was more theory behind this decision, but again if this type of soft ‘foul’ is deemed a penalty, the game has well and truly gone.  

Rubezic knew exactly what he was doing when he hit the deck as all players know that VAR will check anything these days and this decision, along with others, is a terrible precedent to set. 

Slowing down incidents of course makes them look worse and that’s why referees must start to trust their initial instincts and decisions. The current way of working with the video technology is simply ruining our game. 

If the two aforementioned calls weren’t bad enough, Saints midfielder Carey was then booked for simulation late in the game and again replays showed there was clearly contact. I don’t think the coming together was a penalty, but it certainly wasn’t a dive from the Irishman either. VAR can’t be blamed for this one, but referee Beaton certainly can. 

Away from the football side of things, the whole VAR experience for supporters is becoming a joke. The entirety of the stadium has no clue what is going on half the time and it simply cannot continue in this way. 

In my opinion, VAR should be kept for offside calls only and the rest of its involvement in the game should be binned completely. In its current state, we are slowly losing the joy of the game that we all love so much. 

Here’s hoping that Saints’ contact with the SFA can be the start of change to come.