Hibernian will find out on Wednesday if they have been successful in overturning James Jeggo’s controversial red card.
The Australia internationalist was sent-off early in the second half of Saturday’s 1-1 draw with St Johnstone at McDiarmid Park.
The 31-year-old won the ball in a challenge with Connor McLennan but was deemed to have caught the Saints midfielder with his follow-through and was instantly dismissed by referee Craig Napier for ‘serious foul play’.
With VAR ruling there was no clear and obvious error, the whistler’s on-field decision stood.
That infuriated Hibs manager Lee Johnson, who branded the red card ‘horrendous’ and described Napier’s performance as the worst he had seen in his time in football.
READ MORE: Michael Stewart blasts ex-ref Stuart Dougal over Hibs red card defence
Former players and pundits have since lined up to criticise the sending off, protesting that football is in danger of becoming a non-contact sport.
But Napier has found an ally in ex-referee Stuart Dougal, who is adamant Jeggo’s tackle needed to be punished as it could have led to a broken leg for McLennan.
Hibs announced on Sunday night their intention to appeal and their ‘claim for wrongful dismissal’ will be heard by a Scottish FA fast track tribunal on Wednesday morning.
If they are unsuccessful, Jeggo will sit out the first two of Hibs’ post-split matches as they bid to piece together a push for European qualification.
Meanwhile, former referee Stuart Dougal has defended Craig Napier and VAR for the decision to send off Hibernian midfielder James Jeggo at the weekend.
He told the BBC's Vardict programme: “Well, if we look at the protocols for VAR as we keep doing, has VAR seen a clear and obvious error?
“Now within the laws of the game I don't believe that he has seen a clear and obvious error, and we'll touch on that shortly.
“VAR will have seen the referee making, as we have, a very swift red card decision and people were criticising the referee for brandishing the red card very quickly, that's good refereeing.
“He had a great angle. He was out quickly with the card, saves the St Johnstone players trying to, or possibly remonstrating with the Hibs players.
“So from a refereeing perspective, I thought the referee handled that situation very well. VAR can't get involved unless he thinks it's a clear and obvious error."
At The Herald and Times we know the importance of reaching you where it's convenient, which is why we've engaged top sportswriter James Morgan to bring you an irreverent daily update on what's happening in the world of sport. Be it football, golf, rugby, cricket or something more exotic, James will tread where the best stories take him. To get this bespoke piece sent directly to your email inbox for free every day at 5pm, simply take 5 seconds to type in your email here. It's that simple!
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 here