FURIOUS Morton manager Dougie Imrie says that VAR killed any hope of his team pulling off a giant-killing at Celtic Park, as he slammed the decision to award a penalty to the home side for an apparent handball by Efe Ambrose.
Morton had started the game brightly, but Celtic were gifted an opportunity to open the scoring as the ball cannoned off Ambrose’s arm from close range after a Liel Abada shot had ricocheted off of Jack Baird.
There was nothing the defender could have done to avoid the contact, and as his arm was down by his side, Imrie firmly believes that the penalty should never have been awarded. After a lengthy VAR check though, referee Kevin Clancy pointed to the spot, and Celtic went on to run out easy winners.
“I thought we did really well in the first 15 minutes,” Imrie said.
“We had some good opportunities but didn’t take them. Then good old VAR kills the game.
“I don’t know where Efe is supposed to put his hand. It took a deflection but that’s what we need to live with when it comes to VAR.
“It seems to be every week. I remember watching a game at Tynecastle and it took six minutes to make a decision. It’s killing the fluidity of the game. It must be brutal for players. Certainly, I wouldn’t have wanted to play with it. It takes so long for decisions to be made.
“That’s the third game in a row we’ve had a penalty given against us. You never get a call from the people above to say: “Look, we apologise”.
“Listen, it is what it is. We let ourselves down with conceding a goal so soon after the penalty. [But] there needs to be a clear message as to what is and isn’t a penalty going forward.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel