Willie Collum has met with Dundee United and agreed with their complaint about Matthew MacDermid’s decision to disallow a ‘goal’ by Sam Dalby in their 3-1 defeat from Hibs on Wednesday night.
On Saturday MacDermid will referee the match between St Mirren and Celtic.
United were furious about a number of issues relating to the decision which basically amounted to the VAR official looking around for any reason to disallow the header from Dalby.
First of all he tried to rule it out for offside, without any evidence to back that up he opted for handball more than five minutes after the ball hit the net.
Like Alan Muir’s decision to disallow a ‘goal’ from Daizen Maeda for Celtic against Hibs there is absolutely no evidence to back up the decision at Tannadice.
It seems like attention seeking VAR officials are happy to go on a hunch or a grudge to give a controversial decision, twice in a week is more than a coincidence, it is a pattern.
While Michael Nicholson rearranged the paper clips this week United swung into action after Wednesday’s match.
On Thursday they had discussions with Collum while listening to the VAR audio alongside video of the incident.
The Daily Record is usually a very unreliable source of information but on an issue of this magnitude Scott Burns will have the detail well sourced, he doesn’t deal with transformational takeovers, multi-million pound investment or summer spending splurges.
Dundee United chiefs have held constructive talks with the Scottish Football Association and the general agreement is that Sam Dalby’s disallowed goal against Hibs shouldn’t have been disallowed.
United chiefs had asked for the video footage and audio to be released around the controversial second half header that was disallowed by VAR in Wednesday’s 3-1 defeat to Hibs.
United have since had a meeting with referee chief Willie Collum and have seen and heard the audio. There is a general acceptance from all parties that there wasn’t enough evidence for VAR to intervene and disallow the goal for an offence that had been deemed to be a factual overturn.
The match was tied at 1-1 when Dalby headed in at the back post. Referee David Dickinson gave the goal but VAR official Mathew MacDermid intervened first to check for offside, which he was unable to clarify and then ruled it out for an alleged handball.
Muir is already out of circulation after his performance at Easter Road, being left out of the rota for the two rounds of fixtures that followed.
MacDermid is another of the younger referees being fast tracked through the system who has very little ability or understanding of the game.
Earlier this season he indicated for a free kick for St Johnstone in their League Cup tie against Phil Clement’s side, unfortunately he never blew his whistle, the Saints players stopped while Cyriel Dessers put the ball in the net.
With referee recruitment rarely extending beyond the Glasgow and Lanarkshire Refereeing Associations it throws up officials like MacDermid who would be out of his depth taking charge of matches in the Lowland League.
The Celtic and St Mirren players will both know that their match referee has had a nightmare week, so bad that not even the obliging Collum can back up or justify his actions on Wednesday night.
With half a dozen cameras to help him reach the right decision MacDermid isn’t even capable of getting a decision right on VAR duty.
What chance does he have in split second decisions under the floodlights in Paisley involving two sets of very committed players?
He does of course have the fall-back option of VAR to bail him out, where Andrew Dallas is on duty, enjoying a profitable weekend with the Aberdeen v Dundee United game to be covered on Sunday while Muir checks out his garden.
RELATED READING
