A very excited man on VAR, saying delay, delay, delay- O’Neill calls out SFA ref Grant Irvine

Martin O’Neill has slammed the intervention of Grant Irvine in the sending off of Auston Trusty.

The defender was sent off in the 72nd minute of the match with the score at 1-1.

After tussling with Jamie McGrath as they waited on a Celtic corner referee Matthew MacDermid called both players together.

It was something that the referee had did earlier in the match.

Watching on VAR was Grant Irvine, another of the emerging referees impressing Willie Collum and getting fast tracked through the ranks.

Irvine’s day job is as a PE teacher at Boclair Academy where he is a colleague of Nick Walsh.

So far this season 15 officials have refereed matches in the SPFL Premiership.

Surely it is long odds that two of them share the same workplace. We’re not talking Civil Service here but a secondary school with less than 100 employees.

An even bigger coincidence is that the school they work in is the partner school of the Murray Park starlets.

Through the day the young players at Murray Park have their educational needs met at Boclair Academy.

PE is naturally part of the curriculum. There they will be in regular contact with Mr Irvine and Mr Walsh.

It wouldn’t be utterly ridiculous to suggest that while on VAR duty at the Celtic v Hibs match that Mr Irvine was keeping a close eye on developments at Livingston involving his favourite club.

O’NEILL GIVES HIS VERDICT

I did the interview after the game and someone asked me if we were going to appeal it.

I thought I wasn’t sure about it, appeals this day seem to be worthless. But when I get the information coming back and what’s been said on VAR, I thought absolutely.

The referee has seen the incident, he’s watching it. When he’s asked by a very excited man on VAR, saying delay, delay, delay.

They ask him and he says it’s nothing. But then he has to trot over and change his mind. It’s ridiculous. In time, we won’t need a referee. VAR will do it from wherever they’re doing it from.

They’ve asked the referee to overturn something that he’s actually seen. It’s not as if he’s missed the incident. He actually says ‘it’s nothing’. So I’ve got a player that’s missing three games. Of course they are re-reffing games. It’s such a nonsense.

When the referee sees the incident himself, what he’s been asked is ‘you didn’t see that, you saw something else’. That’s got to be debilitating for a referee. It’s got to be.

Celtic know all about Mr Irvine and are quite happy with a very obvious conflict of interest.

They know about David Dickinson, John Beaton and Steven McLean.

When asked about dubious decisions made by Beaton at the 2023 AGM Celtic CEO Michael Nicholson replied ‘Penalty to Rangers’.

The Celtic directors roared with laughter at their wise cracking CEO.