Scottish Premiership: Three things we learned as VAR makes its debut in Scottish football
Hibernian fail to hold on against St. Johnstone as they suffer defeat in first ever VAR match
Hibernian 1-2 St. Johnstone
The excitement was high for this fixture as Hibs attracted their biggest home crowd since 1989. They looked inspired by this as they started the game strongly with chances for the hosts coming from Martin Boyle and Mykola Kukharevych in the opening five minutes.
It wasn’t long after this that VAR showed face for the first time, as a quick check helped referee Kevin Clancy in his decision to show Martin Boyle a yellow card for simulation in the box. The early pressure from the hosts continued and in the 35th minute Kukharevych got on the end of a Chris Cadden cross to open the scoring.
The game turned on its head in the 70th minute as Kyle Magennis was dismissed – the midfielder received two yellow cards on his first start since August 2021. It only took two minutes for St. Johnstone to capitalise on the advantage with Nicky Clark equalising for the visitors. The Hibees conceded again soon after with substitute Stevie May clinching all three points for the Saints.
Hibernian manager, Lee Johnson said: “I thought we were fantastic for 60 minutes – then we had a spell of maybe 10 minutes where we gave the ball away too much, which allowed them to a bit too much momentum.”
St Johnstone manager, Callum Davidson said: “They [Hibernian] were good in the first half, but I thought we pressed them really well in the second half and the subs were good. We showed good character to win the game.”
A controversy filled seven-goal thriller as Celtic win at Tynecastle
Heart of Midlothian 3-4 Celtic
Having been rewarded with his second league start of the season after his hat-trick against Hibernian, James Forrest was the man to open the scoring again for Celtic. A deflected cross by Anthony Ralston landed perfectly for him to nod home.
In the 44th minute, VAR took centre stage as Cameron Carter-Vickers brought Cammy Devlin down in the box. Initially not deeming it as a penalty, Nick Walsh took a trip to the monitor and overruled his decision. Lawrence Shankland stepped up and slotted home the equaliser. There was still time for more controversy before the break as Michael Smith appeared to use his hand to stop the ball going past him, but Walsh and his team disagreed and both teams entered half-time with one goal each.
Shankland added a second for Hearts a minute after the re-start, turning home a Josh Ginnelly cross. Celtic equalised through Georgios Giakoumakis in the 55th minute as he headed in an Aaron Mooy corner. The Glasgow side sustained the pressure and four minutes later hauled themselves back in front, courtesy of Daizen Maeda.
Hearts were awarded another penalty, this time Hart saved Shankland’s strike, but Ginnelly reacted first to score the rebound. However, with Celtic defenders and Ginnely himself encroaching the area, the referee awarded a retake. Shankland made no mistake second time round and became the first player to score a domestic hattrick against Celtic since 1985.
Celtic then raised their tempo and eventually found a winner. Left-back Greg Taylor got his first league goal as his effort at the back-post sealed all three points for the visitors.
Celtic manager, Ange Postecoglou said: “There was a lot going on out there and it would have been easy to resign ourselves and think it wasn’t our day, but once again, these players found a way.”
Heart of Midlothian manager, Robbie Neilson said: “There’s some positives and some negatives with VAR, some things need ironed out. The first penalty was a stonewaller and it doesn’t get given for three or four minutes. We all knew it was a penalty.”
Poor performances eventually catch up as Rangers drop points to Livingston
Rangers 1-1 Livingston
Despite continuing to pick up wins in the league over recent weeks, the mood around Rangers has been low. Without a clear identity and style of play, Rangers lined-up without a right winger as they welcomed Livingston to Ibrox. Midfielder Scott Arfield took back his place in the team with wingers Rabbi Matondo, Scott Wright and Fashion Sakala all on the bench.
Just like the reverse fixture in July, Livingston went ahead early through a Joel Nouble goal – finding the bottom corner after Cristian Montano’s deflected cross fell at his feet.
Setting up to hold on to their lead, Livingston’s defenders must have been surprised with how comfortable a job they had. Growing frustrated, Rangers resulted to crosses with only Antonio Colak to aim at in the box.
With Rangers attacking the Livingston box with no real threat, the turning point in the match came when Morgan Boyes’ heavy challenge on Alfredo Morelos was upgraded from a yellow card to a red.
In a desperate attempt to save the game and potentially his job, Giovanni van Bronckhorst had his side playing with four strikers for the last ten minutes – Colak, Morelos, Sakala and Kemar Roofe all leading the line for Rangers. The home side eventually managed to find the equaliser as a Ryan Kent cross was cleared out to John Lundstram who showed composure to place it into the roof of the net.
With 73 crosses attempted and ground lost on league leaders Celtic, Rangers fans met their side with boos as they dropped their first points at Ibrox since a 2-1 defeat to Celtic in April.
Rangers manager, Giovanni van Bronckhorst said: "We were slow in our attacking. The only time we saw a spark was when we scored for 1-1 and we had seven minutes of injury time to find a winner. Our intensity in those seven minutes is what you need for the whole match."
Livingston manager, David Martindale said: “We knew we could deal with their crosses into the box, so we gave them possession there and crowded the box.
"There's a lot of pride but I'm disappointed for the players. We were very unlucky not to win the game and should probably be walking away with three points. But there's a big decision which VAR plays a part, and it gets the decision correct.”
Results:
Kilmarnock 1-0 Ross County
Motherwell 1-2 Aberdeen
St Mirren 2-1 Dundee United