St Johnstone midfielder Matt Smith had hoped that a brighter era of officiating in Scottish football was in the offing.
But Saturday’s Hampden Park experience has left him fearing nothing has changed.
Saints suffered some cruel VAR blows over the course of last season.
Smith believes another has been added to the list early in the 2024/24 campaign after a disallowed Cyriel Dessers goal was overturned when referee Matthew MacDermid was sent to his pitch-side monitor an hour into the last-16 Premier Sports Cup clash.
This time, though, the Perth side also had an extra layer of anger added on, with MacDermid’s actions in the heat of the action leading them to believe he had awarded a foul before the Rangers forward had scored his first goal in the Ibrox club’s 2-0 victory.
“Did I hear the referee’s whistle?” said Smith. “Well, I thought I did and obviously the gesture was that he was about to give a foul.
“I saw that he obviously was putting his arm up to give us a foul and then I thought there was a whistle blown before the ball had gone into the net.
“I thought I heard that.
“Did he blow twice? That’s what we thought.
“We had a little discussion in the dressing room and that’s what it felt like.
“He spoke to the captain and the captain said he heard a whistle too.
“But the referee said he didn’t blow his whistle so I don’t really know where we can go from that.
“If a ref’s got his arms in the air and pointing as if he’s about to give a foul to us, I think that’s an indication that he thinks it’s a foul.
“He’s obviously then waited for them to score, so I don’t know.
“He put his arm out twice.
“So it looked like he was just about to blow but didn’t blow.
“So it’s a confusing situation to be in as a player because you’re looking at the ref, the ref’s putting his arms in the air, not blowing his whistle.
“We haven’t had that before.”
‘Don’t want to talk’
The Welsh international added: “It’s frustrating because we have these meetings before the season about how there are going to be more discussions about the decisions.
“I tried to speak to the ref and got yellow carded.
“We tried to speak to the linesman too but they don’t want to talk to you.
“I don’t know what was going on so it’s just frustrating.
“The referee and decisions are going to be made quicker and sharper, but it’s taken three games and here we are.
“We’ve worked so hard for 60 minutes and it’s meant to be clear and obvious.
“I’ve watched it back and I still think it’s a foul on our player – I can’t get my head around it.
“I still don’t get VAR.
“We have meetings before a season talking about decisions are going to be made better and more realistic to a game.
“But that’s not what clear and obvious is in my eyes anyway.
“It would obviously help everyone if there was that dialogue between players and linesmen.
“Going forward it would clear up a bit of confusion.
“You speak at the start of the season, they didn’t want crowding and I understand that.
“But as a referee, you surely want to communicate with players for a reason.
“Explain why they’ve given a goal.”
Positives
Josh Rae made several good saves in the contest but twice Adama Sidibeh came close to scoring – hitting the post at 0-0 and squandering a glorious opportunity to equalise from close range in injury time.
“We had chances in the game,” said Smith. “And when you play against the Old Firm, you have to ride your luck a little bit at times.
“I thought we did that up until their first goal but then as soon as that goes in, it changes the game.
“It’s frustrating but I think the lads can take positives and we’ve got to focus on the next game to just keep the positive momentum.”
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