We bring the SFPL season up to date as regards our Virtual VAR series featuring the Yorkshire Whistler.
This covers Celtic’s win over Ross County, and another close call for The Rangers at Dens Park.
My thanks as always to the Yorkshire Whistler.
BACKGROUND – I outlined a framework to assess the impact of Honest Mistakes in the SPFL.
19/03/22 Celtic vs Ross County
Incident 1
Referee | Don Robertson |
Game Minute | 14th |
Incident | Hungbo blocks Jota’s cross |
Outcome | No decision |
Evidence | https://twitter.com/AvengingAngel10/status/1505205790822514689?s=20&t=jiMyEbfnJr9o6PZQ6i3BbQ |
Incident 2
Referee | Don Robertson |
Game Minute | 28th |
Incident | Ramsey tackles Rogic |
Outcome | Foul to Celtic, RC to Ramsey |
Evidence | (7) Celtic 4-0 Ross County | Giakoumakis hat-trick Helps Stretch Lead at the Top | cinch Premiership – YouTube
At 2:54 |
Incident 3
Referee | Don Robertson |
Game Minute | 60th |
Incident | Iacovitti deemed to handle in the box |
Outcome | Penalty to Celtic |
Evidence | (7) Celtic 4-0 Ross County | Giakoumakis hat-trick Helps Stretch Lead at the Top | cinch Premiership – YouTube
At 4:00 |
Yorkshire Whistler Verdict | Initial on field decision: Handball and penalty kick awarded.
Iacovitti jumps to contest a headed ball with a Celtic player and misjudges the flight of the ball. He turns his back to the ball and as his body starts its downward trajectory after jumping, he then raises his right arm in an unnatural ‘L-shape’ position. This is accidental contact but like the first handball incident reviewed this week, I cannot justify the arm position being considered ‘natural’ specific to that players situation. Verdict: Correct decision to penalise the hand ball and award the penalty kick. |
Expected Points
Outcome |
No impact |
20/03/22 Dundee vs The Rangers
Incident 1
Referee | Bobby Madden |
Game Minute | 42nd |
Incident | Dundee defender goes down in box under challenge from Morelos |
Outcome | Penalty to TRFC and YC to Dundee defender |
Evidence | (7) Dundee 1-2 Rangers | Goldson’s Late Winner Keeps Title Hopes Alive | cinch Premiership – YouTube
At 1:24 |
Yorkshire Whistler Verdict | Initial on field decision: Penalty awarded to Rangers and yellow card shown to Dundee player.
It took me several views of this incident to understand why a penalty was awarded to Rangers here, so clearly it is not a straightforward incident. I believe the penalty & subsequent yellow card is shown for a perceived ‘shirt pull’ on Morelos by the Dundee defender. Upon my first 2/3 viewings I could only see the upper body contact made by Morelos into the Dundee defender. I believe what then happens is that the Dundee player feels off balance due to this contact and instinctively grabs Morelos shirt for a second as he falls to the ground. I suspect the referee sees the extended shirt of Morelos being pulled and then awards the penalty. If this was the only contact made by either player then okay, although the impact to Morelos movement is minimal, by letter of law correct decision. However, he appears to ignore or not see the initial contact made by Morelos arms into the back of the Dundee player that then causes the player to reach out and grab the shirt. For me, in real time, I suspect I would be saying to both players ‘get on with, both at it etc.’ and would not have awarded a foul either way. However, if I see the shirt pull, I must also see the Morelos push which happened first and therefore must award the free kick to the defender for the first offence rather than award the penalty to Rangers. Verdict; Incorrect decision. Two potential expected outcomes, neither of which would have been a penalty to Rangers. Either no foul either way, or the penalise the push and give the defensive free kick. |
Expected Points
Outcome |
TRFC +0.47
Explainer: Dundee were 1-0 up at the time. A goal in the 42nd minute would add 0.6 to TRFC’s xPts. As it would have been a penalty and the chances of scoring are always 79%, we multiply 0.6 by 0.79. |
Summary
My thanks as always to the Yorkshire Whistler.
Three wrong calls out of four by the MIBs. This is disappointing to see as the title race reaches its climax. Such a tense title denouement deserves better.
Again, the professional, expert in the laws and independent perspective is very much at odds with the Scottish media portrayal of those decisions. Indeed, if you read back over the 14-article series of Yorkshire Whistler reviews, you will not find a verdict bordering on the incredulous so much as the description of Robertson’s failure to give Celtic a penalty against Ross County for the Hungo hand ball. The YW always tries to give the referees the benefit of the doubt.
Such a glaring error at a key moment in the match (it was only 1-0) was completely ignored by BBC highlights and thus missed the usual 4-day microscope treatment across the other media outlets!
It will be an interesting run in, for sure.
Movement in the overall xPts position then as Celtic get the benefit on one call and not on another, and The Rangers receive a huge break at Dens Park.
After this week’s errors, Celtic have 3.64 LESS Points than expected and The Rangers have 1.47 MORE points than expected due to the cumulative impact of Honest Mistakes.
The overall difference, therefore, is 5.11 points.
Celtic currently lead by 3 points with seven matches left.
The Cha says
re Ramsey Red Card. “Not an obvious error”. Not relevant here but does this mean it wouldn’t have been overturned by VAR or is that just a criteria for penalty incidents?
Also, on this, and obviously evidence not available to the Tyke Tooter but Ramsey had committed 1 or 2 meaty challenges before this that may have warranted a Yellow Card so did Robertson over compensate for not given a YC by giving an RC here?
On theRangers penalty its no shock that the Scottish media and their ref ‘experts’ considered it was one but slightly surprising that “known Celtic fan” ((c) all deranged theRangers fan sites) agreed with them.
He says that he first thought there was a push on the Dundee defender but then sees the pull on Morelos’ shirt therefore it was a penalty.
I’m not sure if he’s saying the push doesn’t matter or whether it came after the pull, which it didn’t, but either way seems wrong.
FESS19 says
Once again thanks to you and the YW for your time and patience. Let’s hope YW does not have to work overtime on next Sundays encounter
Martin2 says
I agree 100% with YW. He (or she) has explained it pretty neatly so I have little to add. I was gobsmacked at the sky report where these decisions were selectively picked apart. Only thing I’d say about the County red card, is that the impact ended up minimal as Celtic already 3-0 up. I think VAR would’ve dropped it to yellow, but can see why ref may have thought red in real time.