The fallout from yesterday’s VAR shambles at Parkhead continues, after VAR chief Nick Walsh, previously a pretty fair and even-handed official, came under major fire for not overturning Kevin Clancy’s mistake.
That only cheating Alistair Johnston, who threw himself to the floor under no pressure, claims the decision was correct, gives some idea of how even the bulk of Celtic fans and Celtic-minded people have not had the utter gall to pretend the call was the right one.
And Des Roache, a former referee himself, is another to confirm it should have been overturned and Walsh is the man under pressure for failing to do so.
Furthermore, while we’re not exactly advocates of ‘writing to the SFA for an explanation’ which Rangers are doing, this case had a LOT riding on it and Rangers were robbed of the opportunity to learn if the goal would have changed the match.
It might not have, we could have still lost this one, but this dreadful call robbed Rangers of a legitimate goal and the chance to see what would have happened had we gone one up.
And only cheating Johnston has the absurd cheek and pure brass neck to claim it was the correct call.
He’s quoted as saying he:
“…felt two hands on his back”
Right, and? Players have their hands all over each other at the best of times. So what he’s really saying is he felt Morelos put his hands on him, so he pretended the Colombian pushed him and threw himself to the floor.
Not a soul thinks it was the right call, not a sane-minded soul without a brass neck anyway.
Now, Ibrox Noise repeats, we do not blame the result on this call. Completely and absolutely not. We felt Celtic were sadly ahead of us yesterday, even if Rangers did put in an energetic shift at Parkhead.
But these decisions change games, they can change games. And an absurd call by Walsh (Clancy made a split-second decision and got it wrong, but that’s why we have VAR) meant we were robbed of the chance we should have had.