MJC

Vale in for Moses, new boy Andrews on the bench.

1-0 defeat

Well that was a great result even if the second half was awful. But we needed the win so I’ll take that.

If we don’t win this game from this position then we would be as well giving up football.

Never in doubt, I had a feeling it was coming. Pleased for Wilson!

We’re never scoring today, it just has that look about it already.

I can’t remember us ever “taking” a team that is supposedly “there for the taking”. That said I’m quite pleased with the team and the changes but I don’t see us getting anything today.

We’re getting nothing again here. 0-2

It’s this nonsense that is killing the game imo. This jobsworth-like examination of every goal to find the slightest thing wrong means that you can’t celebrate and enjoy a goal anymore because you know that the VAR team will be scrutinising absolutely everything that went on in the build up to it. That is not doing anything to help the game in my opinion, quite the opposite and I would gladly see VAR binned tomorrow.

There was no foul and I completely agree that it was the correct decision to allow the goal to stand. But that’s not the point I was arguing. It was being suggested that referees/VAR will automatically give Rangers the decision no matter whether if it was the right call or not, presumably because they are biased towards them. Surely if a referee or a team of officials on VAR were out to assist Rangers then any 50/50 call or even any decision where there is doubt would go in favour of Rangers???

Absolute nonsense. Again, if that is the case why then did VAR decide to let our first goal stand? Had that goal been the match winner do you not think that Rangers would have tried to “make a story” out of them being ‘cheated’ by a ‘handball’? And to be clear, I do not think that that was a deliberate handball at all, but it was questioned and reviewed by VAR so why then if “they are terrified to give the nod to any team where they think Rangers can make a story out of it” did they give the nod to us in that situation?

I don’t think they’ve had a penalty awarded to them in the league all season. Kinda surprising when you take into account the “Penalty to Rangers” narrative and the one where match officials and VAR will do everything in their power to help them out when they need it.

That was a stonewall penalty. Ox was clumsy in the challenge and clearly caught the Celtic player. It wasn’t even remotely the same as the incident with Butland and Watt today.

Apart from when they (correctly) upheld our first goal after VAR had flagged a potential handball? If they were really hell bent on giving them every advantage then why didn’t they just give that as a deliberate handball?? I know it wasn’t but surely if a set of officials were hell bent on giving them every advantage then they would have ruled that goal out??? Or so I would have thought?

Goalkeepers always do in that scenario. They are a protected species.

I would have taken the draw before the game but I’m just fucking scunnered with that. 2-0 up at half time and predictably we let them back into it. We have the ball in the net two more times and neither count (correctly, I might add, going by the rules of the game and VAR). As ever our age old Achilles heal of being 2-0 ahead bites us. I am genuinely more comfortable with a one goal lead than a two goal one because we almost always switch off and gift the opposition a goal and a way back into it.

It’s supposed to correct “clear and obvious errors” by onfield officials. The decision to rule out the second one patently wasn’t a “clear and obvious error”.

Without VAR the first ‘3rd’ would have been disallowed as Watt’s arm was us as he jumped with the goalkeeper as they always get the benefit of the doubt there. However the second ‘3rd’ would probably have stood because there wouldn’t have been a ‘forensic’ examination to find a body part that was offside going by the rules. It’s shite either way.

Both decisions were technically “correct” going by the rule book. And like I said earlier, Kevin Clancy isn’t a Rangers fan.

Just get VAR to fuck. It’s seriously ruining the game. You have to basically second guess whether to celebrate every goal because a players elbow or big toe might be ‘offside’. Jobsworth stuff

Goalkeeper always gets the benefit of the doubt in that scenario. Watt’s hand was up and that gave him the excuse to blow for the foul. So anyone starting mumping about bias and ‘Masonic’ referees can just sit back down. Plus I very, VERY much doubt that Kevin Clancy is a Rangers fan.

There you go. Only one winner now.

That’s the crucial thing. For as long as I can remember we have been hopeless at managing 2-0 leads. If we want to win this this we absolutely cannot concede early in the second half.

We need to break the habit of a lifetime here and NOT concede the next goal when 2-0 up.

Hopefully we learn our lessons from the Semi Final here now we’re 1-0 up!!