You always remember your first.  

There’s absolutely no doubt that Stephen McGinn will always remember the first game he played when VAR was involved. 

The technology intervened after less than five minutes of Falkirk’s Scottish Cup semi-final defeat to Inverness at the weekend.  

Left-back Leon McCann was penalised for handball after Caley Thistle’s Jay Henderson fired the ball off his hand from close-range.  

Nick Walsh didn’t award a penalty in normal time, however, VAR advised he reviewed his decision at the pitch side monitor. Billy McKay subsequently stepped up to give Billy Dodds’ men an early lead at Hampden and set the Highlanders on their way to a comfortable 3-0 win.  

McGinn insists there is a flaw with the handball rules and the utilisation of VAR. He said: “It is the first time I have played with VAR. I think teams who use it regularly should just aim for players’ hands. If it is not going towards goal, chip it off someone’s hand. 

“If that is where football is going then use it as a tactic to get penalties. When I heard the referee saying it was a penalty it was a real blow. 

“Wee Jay Henderson has fired a ball in and it isn’t going to lead to a goal. The ball is fired in, it is a hopeful cross but I will need to see it back. I never thought it was a penalty in real time, but they have given it. 

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“I’m a football fan who is trying to embrace VAR and a lot of it is good but the handballs are an issue. Everyone is split on handball and it is subjective. 

“A lot of people look at them differently. A lot of VAR has been good for the game but I am not sure about the handball. It is the rules but everyone looks at decisions differently. I don’t think that would be given outside the box.  

“It was the worst start possible. We had a chance a few minutes later, an open goal and we have to take them in a game like this. 

“One of the best strikers up here in the last ten years up here has been Billy McKay and we leave him free at the back post for the third. We had numerous chances and between boxes we played the way we wanted but they were more clinical we were. 

“We spoke about Jay as I have played with him and he has brilliant quality, he always has. 

“More often than not he puts it on the money and we knew we had to stop crosses. Dan Mackay’s is a great header but he is himself in the box and you can’t have that. 

“The goals we lost were disappointing but we had chances to get back into it but we couldn’t take them.” 

McCann was the Bairns player caught by the officials for the penalty in the early stages of the game.  

He is adamant that his teammates cannot afford to feel down about not reaching the final, with crucial play-off games on the horizon, as he lamented his luck with VAR.

“There’s not much I can do – we’re not used to VAR in a normal game,” McCann insisted. “They didn’t even claim it. In our league, we’re getting away with that.  

“You can’t change it, so I understand to an extent. But I do think it’s very harsh with the rules. Their player was four yards away from me and he’s leathered it at me. I don’t see how you’re meant to stand with your hands by your side. I’ve not watched back yet, but I don’t feel my hand was outstretched.  

“If you’re an attacker and you’re smart enough then you know you can flick the ball up onto the defender’s arm and it’ll be a penalty. You could really take advantage of things like that.  

READ MORE: Falkirk 0 Inverness 3: Clinical Caley storm into Scottish Cup Final

“There wasn’t a single player of theirs claiming for a handball. I just knew when he went over to the monitor that it was going to be given.  

“I could feel my fingertips tingle, I just hoped the VAR could see that it wasn’t deliberate and then take into consideration how close their player was to me. That’s football now, though.  

“I didn’t let it get me down though. It was a decision that none of us could do anything about. In the first half, we were excellent. They had one cross and they scored from it.  

“We came out in the second flying, we had three or four corners in a short period of time, we got the crowd going and then again they had another cross and they scored. That was the difference. They were clinical and we weren’t.  

“We had plenty of really good chances that a lot of strikers would’ve taken your hand off for.  

“It’s a learning curve for us. There’s a lot to be proud of today. It would be a different story if it had finished 3-0 and we hadn’t turned up and run scared. We didn’t though, we stood up and we were counted for.”