John Beaton points the blame at Alan Muir for Ibrox VAR penalty

Steven Naismith has spilled the beans on the last gasp penalty that cost Hearts a win at Ibrox.

Leading with a Lawrence Shankland goal in the fourth minute Hearts had defended well and looked on course to take at least a point from their trip along the M8.

Defending a corner there was the usual jostling going on inside the penalty box in full view of referee John Beaton who allowed play to continue as the ball was cleared.

With play stopped for an offside call Beaton halted play prompted by Alan Muir on VAR duty, doubling up after refereeing the Hibs v Celtic match on Saturday.

Rather than review the general passage of play Muir focussed on a shirt pull by Peter Haring AFTER he had been blocked by John Lundstram.

Beaton doesn’t need much encouragement to set up a penalty for James Tavernier, with time running out he gave the Ibrox skipper the opportunity to draw level which he took.

Naismith told the Edinburgh News:

I spoke to the officials and they said if it was given a goal, it would then be given as a foul. Lo and behold, there’s a clear block on our man. John Lundstram is not interested in the ball, all he is doing is looking at our player, and he blocks him, and it gets given as VAR as a penalty.

The referee said that he was never shown any video footage of any block happening. There’s contact with our player as the ball is coming in by a Rangers player who is not interested in the ball. Clear obstruction, clear blocking, should be our foul.

VAR should see that a foul has happened before the two players make contact [for the penalty]. He said he didn’t see that far back but it’s pretty obvious, to be honest, when you look at it.

On Wednesday night Beaton will referee the Celtic v St Mirren match.

Today was the fourth consecutive time he has been chosen to referee matches between Hearts and the club from Ibrox, it is now 64 matches since a penalty was awarded against the Tribute Act in the SPFL, a run spanning three managers and 22 monthS.

After his carefully scripted appearance with Gordon Duncan on Sky Sports last weekend Referee Chief Crawford Allan won’t be making any media appearances this week.