Kevin Thelwell hasn’t been much cop at identifying what is required for the rigours of Scottish football up to now, so it says something that even he can see that the standards of officiating are nowhere near up to scratch.
The Rangers sporting director is still unhappy over the fact Celtic defender Auston Trusty escaped a red card during the recent Old Firm Premier Sports Cup semi-final for catching Ibrox goalkeeper Jack Butland on the head with his boot.
Seems fair. In his VAR Review show for November, released when the month wasn’t even halfway through, SFA refereeing chief Willie Collum suggested the offence didn’t fit the criteria for violent conduct.
That’s his view. Guess it all boils down to whether you believe the contact between Trusty’s boot and Butland’s noggin was ‘negligible’.
The Cambridge Dictionary determines the word ‘negligible’ to mean ‘too slight or small in amount to be of importance’.
Call me old-fashioned, but a player kicking the goalie on the head when he has both hands on the ball really isn’t something you just brush under the carpet as unimportant – whatever the level of force involved.
Auston Trusty’s boot comes into contact with Rangers goalkeeper Jack Butland’s head
Rangers sporting director Kevin Thelwell is unhappy with the standard of officiating in Scotland
In any case, Thelwell did point out that Trustygate was only the tip of the iceberg.
‘We want greater consistency, we want a greater quality and standard of refereeing and we want the focus to be on the football and not on the decisions,’ he stated.
There aren’t many invested in the game here who would disagree. Indeed, it was the footage of another incident from the other Premier Sports Cup semi between St Mirren and Motherwell during Friday night’s latest episode of Willievision that highlighted so much of what is going wrong right now.
With Saints already cruising at 3-1 up, the ball falls to Mikael Mandron, opposing defender Emmanuel Longelo jumps on him, but he keeps his cool and curls a brilliant finish into the bottom corner.
Even now, it is astonishing that referee Don Robertson was sent to review the incident on the pitchside monitor, correctly stating, after watching the footage, that there was no infringement from the Saints striker and the goal would stand.
That it even got to that stage is ludicrous, though. It was never a foul in a month of Sundays.
Even Collum admitted the pitchside review should never have happened, based on one opinion from the Assistant VAR, who, on that occasion, was Gavin Duncan.
It just felt like unnecessary nitpicking. Looking for fouls that weren’t there, to be honest.
Mikael Mandron’s second goal against Motherwell was scrutinised by VAR
Apologies from SFA head of referees Willie Collum are becoming commonplace this season
And with every episode of the VAR Review right now, there seems to be at least one episode of an unacceptable mistake in the Control Room.
It might be Hearts captain Lawrence Shankland handling the ball before going on to score at Ibrox and being let off, unfathomably, because Greg Aitken – VAR that day and also VAR at the St Mirren semi – decided it was ‘completely accidental’ rather than putting the emphasis on the fact his hand was hung out like yesterday’s washing.
It might be Celtic getting a last-gasp penalty at Kilmarnock and Collum admitting he never wants to see another spot-kick given in similar circumstances ever again.
Referees getting stuff wrong in the heat of the moment is one thing. His contemporaries doing the same when they have umpteen re-runs from several angles to pore over is another thing entirely.
Collum admitting to unfathomable errors over and over again can only go on so long before we stop praising him for his honesty and start asking why the officials under his charge don’t seem to be learning from their mistakes.
It looks like Rangers might be about to lead the charge.
