St Johnstone are out of the Premier Sports Cup.
The Perth side were beaten 2-0 by Rangers at Hampden Park on an evening when Scottish match officials were thrust back in the spotlight.
Courier Sports discusses the big incident of the last-16 contest, its ramifications and other talking points from a game that was only settled in the Ibrox club’s favour in injury-time.
Whistle or no whistle?
I didn’t hear a whistle before Cyriel Dessers smashed the ball past Josh Rae but newspaper colleagues closer to that penalty box did.
You’ll find plenty of St Johnstone fans who will say the latter.
Perth players were also convinced that Matthew MacDermid had blown, though, as happens when there are various sides to a story flying about post-match, an element of doubt begins to creep in.
The SFA were quick to insist to the BBC that the whistle came after the ball crossed the line.
Either way, Premier Sports pundit, Marvin Bartley, hit the nail on the head when giving an ex-player’s view on the way MacDermid handled that passage of play.
“As soon as I see the referee doing that, I’m stopping.”
You can trot out the old ‘play to the whistle’ mantra but everybody involved in the game knows that when a ref makes as overt a gesture as MacDermid did before Dessers’ shot, he has signalled a free-kick has been awarded.
When he was having his subsequent discussions with his VAR colleague, Greg Aitken, he should have been saying ‘look, I gave a foul before he scored’.
Innate trust between players and referees is at an all-time low.
The last thing Scottish football needs is for it to be undermined even further, with on-pitch physical gestures now effectively deemed meaningless.
Sidibeh progress
Adama Sidibeh had two glorious opportunities to score.
He didn’t do much wrong with his effort at the near post near the end of the first half but made a mess of an even better chance in second half injury time.
Score the first and Saints had a lead to protect.
Score the second and we were likely heading into extra-time, with all the uncertainty that throws up.
With Sidibeh, the number of clubs supposedly keen on signing him this month has reached farcical levels.
There has been one phone conversation (Swansea City) with St Johnstone and no written offer.
It’s a shame that transfer speculation has become the dominant theme because, even though he didn’t make himself a Hampden hero, Sidibeh is a striker who is getting better and better, with plenty of scope for further improvement.
He barely kicked a ball in the games against Rangers and Celtic last season but was much more effective this time around.
Maybe somebody will yet come in with a bid over £500,000 that neither club nor player feels able to turn down.
But, strip away the transfer talk, and everything is moving in the right direction for a footballer still with time on his side.
Neilson’s change of position
Saints needed a central midfielder before this game and they still need a central midfielder after it.
They’re clearly a player light in a key area, the key area, of the pitch.
Sven Sprangler must be wondering when his next chance to start a match for St Johnstone will come but the man tasked with protecting the backline on Saturday, Lewis Neilson, can be broadly satisfied with his evening’s work.
He didn’t look like a defender shoved into unfamiliar territory, which is a compliment.
There were occasions when the Saints’ midfield was over-run but I’ve seen plenty of matches against Rangers when they’ve had a far less secure foothold than in this game.
Neilson was positionally sound and did a lot of unsung tracking-back work to quell Rangers attacks.
The Dessers goal was more about the striker’s quick feet than the on-loan Hearts player’s defending.
Neilson will play more games in defence than midfield for St Johnstone but Craig Levein knows he’s got a valuable asset to fill-in for Aaron Essel and whoever the new recruit for that position turns out to be.
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