“I don’t blame John” – Former ref points the finger over Goldson ‘penalty’ claim

I do blame John Beaton. And I also blame Willie Collum but the referee is the man in charge and that is where the blame, for me, lies for missing the Connor Goldson penalty.

The big Englishman ‘saved’ the ball in the middle of the penalty area and as referee, John Beaton, waved play on, the Celtic fans were left perplexed at the decision not to even take a look at the handball on the VAR screens.

So was the referee to blame for missing it or was it Willie Collum for not highlighting the handball in the first place?

Former Scottish referee Steve Conroy believes that Beaton was not to blame.

Speaking to OLGB, former ref Steve Conroy said, “The VAR team didn’t make the right call with the Connor Goldson handball shout – to me, it looked like a handball.

“Now that Scottish football actually has VAR, I have no idea why that incident wasn’t put to review. Unless there’s a view of it that we viewers at home didn’t see, I’m not sure why John Beaton wasn’t advised to have a look at the monitor.

“It shouldn’t be decided by those in charge of VAR if it’s a penalty or not, that should be left to John so he can make up his own mind.

“I don’t blame John, he should’ve been given the opportunity to look at it again.”

Both are culpable. Beaton for missing the handball completely and Collum for being negligent for not allowing the referee to have another look at it.

VAR is here to stay. We need to accept that. But we cannot, and should not accept, the the blatant double standards we are seeing when VAR is applied to certain teams.

It’s time the Celtic board raised this with the SFA and demanded a fairer application of the rules across the Scottish game.