St Johnstone playmaker Graham Carey has sensed a change in the VAR landscape since the mid-season break.
And the Perth side are suffering on the back of it.
Carey’s disallowed goal against Aberdeen last month – confirmed to have been a mistake by an independent panel – was one of several controversial decisions that have gone against Craig Levein’s men recently.
‘Clear and obvious error’ no longer seems to be the guiding principle, with the Irishman keen to see that mantra return.
“Probably the last two months I think VAR have interfered a lot more than they had been,” he said.
“They’re only supposed to intervene if it’s clear and obvious. A lot of those decisions aren’t really clear and obvious.
“There needs to be more trust given to the refs because, at the end of the day, they’re refereeing the game and this is taking the responsibility away from them.
“It’s not the referee’s fault.
“You kind of get to a stage where some of the refs are explaining the rules to you on the pitch and explaining why it’s a foul or not a foul.
“We’ve got some good refs in this league. I just think we need to trust them a little bit more.
“To be fair, VAR have got a lot of big decisions correct. But it does feel like we’re stopping games to go back and look at incidents in last two months.
“Players didn’t get any indication about that.
“We got the presentation at the start of the season on what rules they’re tightening up or changing.
“But nothing since then.
“For me, personally, I thought VAR worked pretty well last season. I think now they’re kind of getting involved a bit and I don’t know the reason for that.
“We just have to get on with it and accept the decisions that they make.”
‘Too late now’
Learning on Thursday that his volley to open the scoring against Aberdeen should have stood didn’t provoke strong emotions for Carey.
“I think everyone on the pitch knew it was a fair enough goal and not many of their players complained,” he said. “Bar the boy (Jamie McGrath) who went down.
“It’s too late now – we can’t go back and get three points. It’s irrelevant, really.
“At the time it was a perfectly good goal. Challenges like that (Liam Gordon’s on McGrath) happen all the time in the penalty area.”
Carey has no fears that all the decisions going against Liam Gordon – a penalty for Dundee on Sunday the most recent – will have a psychological impact on their skipper when they face Rangers on Sunday.
“Gordy’s got a strong personality and character,” said the former Plymouth man. “It doesn’t affect him.
“That’s why he’s our captain.
“He’s our leader on the pitch. I don’t think he’ll back out of any tackles. That’s not him.
“The next time the ball is in the box, he’ll go full force as always.
“You can’t really legislate for decisions like those – you just need to get on with the game.
“I think he’s been unlucky. The penalty against Aberdeen was harsh as well.”
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