The Scottish FA KMI panel believes Rangers SHOULD have had a penalty against St Johnstone during last Sunday’s 2-0 victory at Ibrox.
They also determined that Kasper Schmeichel should have been pulled by the ref for encroachment after saving a first half Ronan Hale penalty before VAR double checked. The Dane thought he’d denied the Ross County striker in the Dingwall lunchtime kick-off. but his celebrations were cut short when VAR let whistler Kevin Clancy know that the Celtic keeper had strayed from his tline too early and too far.
And Hale didn’t waste his second chance, slotting home to give the hosts the lead before the champions staged a late turnaround to take all three points, thanks to goals from Alistair Johnston and Nicolas Kuhn. The notes read: “The panel deemed the on-field decision incorrect and supported the VAR’s decision to intervene and award the retake of the penalty.”
Rangers were in action at the unusually late time of 8pm against St Johnstone thanks to the Great Scottish Run/s proximity to Ibrox earlier in the day. It was a fairly routine 2-0 victory for the Light Blues thanks to Vaclav Cerny’s double. But the hosts wanted a spot kick after Aaron Essel’s first half shirt pull on Dessers from a corner.
Replays showed him with a handful of the striker’s shirt, and Record Sport’s resident ref Des Roache couldn’t understand why one wasn’t given. The panel were mostly of a similar view, with four of them believing both ref David Dickinson and VAR were wrong not to award the penalty.
One however, wasn’t so sure. The notes read: “The panel discussed this decision at length with the majority (4:1) deeming the onfield decision incorrect. The panel believed that the prolonged shirt pull from the defender impeded the player’s movement towards the ball. One panelist believed VAR was incorrect not to intervene and a penalty kick should have been awarded after an on-field review.”
VAR’s call to intervene on Ianis Hagi;s red card in the same game was unanimous, however. The panel determined that both a Motherwell penalty claim against Hibs for a foul on Andy Halliday by Kown, and Frankie Kent’s challenge for Hearts on Jamie McGrath, were not KMIs and should be removed in future.