St Johnstone were on the wrong end of the first big VAR controversy of the season in their Premier Sports Cup defeat to Rangers.
The Perth players were sure they had heard referee, Matthew MacDermid, whistle before he awarded a foul against Cyriel Dessers in the build-up to the cup holders’ opening goal.
It ended up counting after VAR intervention, however in the Saints camp it was the fact that the flow of the play was affected by MacDermid’s on-pitch actions that infuriated them.
Manager, Craig Levein, made sure he chose his words carefully in his post-match verdict on the major talking point of the game.
But his dismay was crystal clear.
“I didn’t speak to the referee,” said Levein. “What’s the point?
“I’ve been there a hundred times and I end up getting fined and then doubling my fine and then doubling it again.
“Some of them (his players) said he blew the whistle.
“I even tried to listen back to it on the footage and all the rest of it. I can’t tell.
“I thought it was a foul for us.
“I thought that Jack (Sanders) had been tripped by Dessers and that’s why Jack was on the ground.
“And that’s why Dessers still had the ball.
“So I thought: ‘There’s no danger here’.”
Why they stopped
Levein added: “Everybody stopped because of one or two things.
“Either they’ve stopped because they heard the whistle or they’ve seen the referee giving us a free-kick.
“I think the referee’s made a mistake. That’s what I think.
“And I’d love him to come out afterwards and just say: ‘Look I’ve got that one wrong’.
“I’m going to get in trouble if I keep going.
“I find it very difficult to understand what happened and the logic behind that.”
Carey for Essel
Levein was forced into making one change from the team which beat Kilmarnock last weekend due to Aaron Essel’s suspension.
Graham Carey was the man to take his place but instead of going like for like, the Saints boss tweaked his formation, with Lewis Neilson moving out of defence into a holding midfield role.
The visitors had every reason to be happy with how the first half went.
Yes, there were plenty of Rangers shots however most of them were off target and Josh Rae made a couple of good saves to thwart Danilo and Vaclav Cerny.
And Saints also had promising moments of their own in the opposition box.
An Andre Raymond right foot strike took a deflection off John Souttar and spun just past the post, then with 41 minutes on the clock, Adama Sidibeh came even closer to scoring.
Carey switched the play to Matt Smith, whose cross from the right picked out the Gambian international in space, and his first-time shot struck the outside of Jack Butland’s near post.
Rangers made the breakthrough just before the hour (or just after, once VAR had done its thing).
The referee originally penalised Dessers for a foul on Sanders before he smashed the ball low past Rae.
But VAR official, Greg Aitken, saw no infringement and MacDermid awarded the goal after watching the incident on his pitch-side monitor.
Saints finished the game with four centre-forwards on the pitch and Sidibeh should have equalised in the second minute of stoppage time when a Raymond cross fell nicely for him at the back post.
That was that.
Up the pitch went Rangers, and Ross McCausland made the final score 2-0 for the hosts.
Good performance
Levein was pleased with his team’s display.
He said: “I think it’s a step up even from last week against Kilmarnock.
“I thought we worked really, really hard – tried to pressurise Rangers all over the pitch, particularly in the back line.
“Unfortunately, we missed some good chances.
“But I’d like to think that we can take some confidence, a lot of confidence from this performance today.”
St Johnstone – Rae, Raymond, Cameron, Sanders, Wright, Neilson, Carey, MacPherson (Kirk, 75), M Smith (Clark, 83), Kimpioka, Sidibeh. Subs not used – Sinclair, May, C Smith, McPake, Olufunwa, Franczak.
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