The boys of 2016 as Mark Warburton loses the Scottish Cup Final to Hibs
There was one game changing decision made by the match officials at Hampden yesterday.
In the 19th minute a quickly taken Celtic free kick caused panic in the Ibrox defence. They were all over the place.
MANUAL VAR
Ben Nygren’s shot was blocked by Jack Butland, it bounced off Nicky Raskin’s shoulder and into the net.
Premier Sports showed a replay from a camera along the 18 yard line, clearly Nasser Djiga had a foot closer to the goal-line than Daizen Maeda.
In the VAR studio Steven McLean and Andrew Dallas were working on the manual VAR.
They can freeze the frame at any point they like. With marginal decisions the VAR team can choose the option that suits them. They did. Goal disallowed.
Looks pretty conclusive that they used a frame or two early for the VAR lines.
At point of contact foot is open and leg is straight.
On VAR still pic, boot is closed and leg bent.
But because ball is behind the boot you can’t see gap between boot and ball. https://t.co/43YJQk1NpP pic.twitter.com/Bijoz8RVD0— Lint (@Zeshankenzo) November 3, 2025
A few minutes after the ‘goal’ was disallowed Premier Sports shared the image used to disallow the effort. It convinced no one.
Rather than show an image of the players in line the VAR team opted for one closer to the goal line.
Two thick felt tip pens were used, one red, one blue with lines drawn to show Maeda in an offside position.
Time to move on.
ASSAULT ON KENNY
A few minutes later Derek Cornelius brutally went through onto the ankle of Johnny Kenny. Walsh had a clear view and issued a yellow card. McLean and Dallas agreed.
In the 24th minute Kenny did head the ball into the net. That should have made the score 2-0 with Celtic playing against 10 men in blue shirts.
After 38 minutes Thelo Aasgaard pushed things too far, he was red carded for a brutal assault on Tony Ralston.
In first half stoppage time Auston Trusty was booked. The messengers had their excuse, they were off and running. Trusty was pulling his boot back when Butland’s momentum took him into the Celtic players boot.
Walsh is the target, no Celtic fan will be upset if they never see him again. Or McLean and Dallas and the rest of Willie Collum’s elite team of match officials.
Offside?
Away tae fuck pic.twitter.com/1tzpHX2iCG— Lenny Bruce (@LennyBr64521062) November 2, 2025
Should Walsh, McLean and Dallas be dropped from refereeing?
No. Men of integrity and honesty
Yes. Just too many honest mistakes
“…Two thick felt tip pens were used, one red, one blue with lines drawn to show Maeda in an offside position…”
I suppose red, white and blue pens would have been a bit too obvious? 🙂
And everyone in that stadium – and everyone watching on TV / online around the world –
knew that sevco was getting a penalty – somehow.
The only genuine surprise was Trusty not receiving a red card – deserved or not.
ibrox and the foaming bears can just deflect / blame the match officials: fine.
Leave them to it.
Good to see a bit of fight back in our team though.
Why did wee Walsh with the whistle wait around 5 seconds to blow it for the penalty to theRangers ? Could it have been because that was the amount of time it took Dallas and McLean from VAR to tell him in his shell like to ‘ give it ? ‘
Said at the time of the incident that the wrong frame had been used, as the actual football hadn’t been released, which lint has proved yet again.
Game changing decision possibly, as the tone of the cheating officials had been set beforehand.
No doubt Trusty, could have went also, but also reduced ourselves in actually making challenges in the 2nd half, when the cheating was ramped up even moreso.
Personally still think butter fingers, had said something to Trusty beforehand, for the reaction. So with that in mind, couldn’t condemn Trusty for his potential reaction, and actually enjoy seeing our players showing a far higher level of aggression within there play imo
You put Dallas jnr. and McLean in the same room and what you get is a monster!
Are the Celtic officials sending this to the SFA. And demanding resignations from the VAR .linesmen
Editor: Sadly not. Celtic board rubbing their hands at three home O** F*** matches between January and September.
Cheats with whistles, flags and monitors then…
Cheats with whistles, flags and monitors now…
Cheats with whistles, flags and monitors forever !