Ian Maxwell, the Scottish Football Association chief executive, was insistent that VAR was, despite the outcry the new technology had caused in our national game since being introduced a month earlier, working well when he spoke to the media back in December.

He pointed out the much-maligned system had increased the number of correct decisions which our referees had made on straight red cards, penalty area incidents and mistaken identity in cinch Premiership matches substantially.

Their accuracy rate in those areas, in fact, had increased from 90 to 98 per cent during the weeks in which it had been in operation.

The players, managers and supporters who had been irked, and in some cases incensed, by the calls arrived at by match officials after conferring with their colleagues in Clydesdale House disputed those figures. What is that old saying about statistics again?

But one thing is beyond doubt – covering a match as a reporter is now 100 per cent more complicated than it was before Scottish football was dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century and VAR was brought in back at the end of October.

There have always – and will always, regardless of how many different angles a whistler is able to watch a particular flashpoint back from on his pitchside monitor, be – contentious rulings given in the game here.

Assessing whether the man in the middle got it right, offering an opinion on whether a team got a lucky break or was hard done by, has long been a part of a journalist’s job on match days.

Now, though, they have to figure out why a particular passage of play was reviewed afterwards. Or why the action was allowed to continue without a check. All too often, there appears no logic behind either. Confusion and frustration have reigned. The glaring inconsistencies have been the major bugbear this season.

VAR only comes into play when the referee has made a clear and obvious error or missed a serious infraction entirely in the aforementioned categories. But the slightest offences have been pounced on and punished while full nelson head locks have been ignored.

VAR has certainly generated controversy and debate aplenty in the past seven months or so and the interest among readers has been great. It was always inevitable there would be mistakes made and issues which would arise that would need to be ironed out. It has also, as Maxwell stated, got an awful lot spot on.

But Lawrence Shankland, the Hearts captain, summed up the feelings of many last weekend after his team mate Alex Cochrane was red carded for a foul he had originally received a yellow for. “There hasn’t been much clarity,” he said.

Managers will overhaul their squads this summer in the hope of enjoying better times in the 2023/24 campaign. The SFA must do the same with VAR in the coming weeks to quell unrest in the stands – and press boxes.