Connor Goldson Rangers ‘handball’ claim puts Willie Collum under VAR microscope as former ref defends John Beaton
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Celtic should have had a penalty in their 2-2 draw with Rangers when Connor Goldson was struck in the arm by a shot, according to former official Steve Conroy.
The Hoops got ahead in this mouth-watering Premiership clash through Daizen Maeda but needed Kyogo Furuhashi to save them from defeat after Ryan Kent and James Tavernier efforts. They remain nine points clear at the top of the league but while the game was still at 2-1, centre-back Goldson appeared to commit a handball when an effort by Carl Starfelt appeared to hit his outstretched arm.
Referee John Beaton has been given a thumbs up for his display by former whistler Conroy but speaking to OLBG he claimed VAR official Willie Collum didn’t do his job properly from the VAR room. He explained: “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.
“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.”
He went on: “John Beaton had an excellent game today. I’m not normally a fan of how he referees games but he had an excellent game.
“I’ll say that I think the Goldson incident wasn’t John’s fault, that should’ve been passed back to him to review it. It’s fantastic that he got through the Old Firm while only showing two cautions, I thought he was on top of the game all the way through – he was fantastic.”
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