Celtic’s win in the Scottish Cup has really focused the attention on the SFA officials again this season.
Not for the first time, but thankfully it will be the last, the referees and VAR have come under criticism for some big decisions that were made in Celtic’s win.
The decision not to award Celtic a penalty has not been getting as nearly enough attention as the one that was made to disallow a Rangers second-half goal.
Nicolas Raskin’s push on Joe Hart gave VAR an opportunity to step in and chalk the goal off and it is a decision that has enraged the Ibrox support.
And I don’t really know why. Because the push is there, it happened and to say it was harsh like Ally McCoist did this morning is just plain wrong.
However, next up is Kenny Miller to give his opinion on the flashpoint and it is one that may surprise the Celtic support.
Miller in ‘no doubt’ about Joe Hart Hampden call
The former Rangers striker surprised me with this because, after his verdict on John Lundstram being sent off at Celtic Park in the final Glasgow Derby of the season, there was no telling what Miller would say about this.
After a Rangers fan called Radio Clyde fuming about the chalked-off goal, Miller was asked his opinion and he was in ‘no doubt’ about what he thought of the disallowed goal.
Miller said [Superscoreboard], “Ultimately, I think it was the right call. And the reason is that you just can’t do that with VAR now.
“The goalie is up there and you can see Nico Raskin making his move to try and get to a position to try and affect Joe Hart.
“But there’s one thing for sure, you can put two hands on the back of the goalkeeper when he’s going up. I mean goalkeepers are a protected species.
“You need to make sure there’s no arms up in front of the face, there’s not going to be any body contact, you actually can’t even go challenging goalkeepers with any contact.
“So when you put two hands on Joe Hart’s back and you can see it does propel him forward.
“I don’t think it propelled him as far forward as what he ended up, but it was just never going to be given because it completely affected that ball going in the back of the net. There’s no doubt about it.”
For me, there is no dubiety at all about the decision by VAR to intervene and disallow the goal. In fact, John Beaton and Nick Walsk should be praised for getting this correct.
Heaven knows they get enough criticism for all the mistakes they make but on this occasion, they were 100% correct.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t matter what you, I or even Kenny Miller think. The faux sense of injustice being peddled by the Ibrox support just doesn’t wash and the sooner they accept that the officials got this one correct, the quicker the painful healing process will take place.