Aberdeen boss Barry Robson is praying a VAR decision will finally go in his favour as he battles for third spot in the Premiership.
The Dons gaffer was furious again yesterday with officials at Clydesdale House for not instructing ref Kevin Clancy to look at a penalty incident in their 2-1 defeat to Hearts. At 0-0, Aberdeen forward Marley Watkins was brought down in the box by Peter Haring and VAR checked for a spot kick.
But Clancy was told by his video assistants to play on, which left the Dons bench fuming. Robson was similarly upset when his team didn’t get a decision at Ibrox a fortnight ago after Connor Goldson’s clumsy challenge on Duk. And he says he’s expecting to get something from VAR in their last two games against St Mirren and Celtic as they chase down the Europa League group stage spot. Robson said: “Here we sit once again speaking about it and it's frustrating. That's why I got booked today, I didn't think a lot of decisions were great. It's not hard to get it right. We've got two games to go and I've not had one decision from VAR.
"So the thing I'm massively hopeful about is that surely I'm going to get one in the last two games? Surely? We've not had those decisions since I've been in post, so I didn’t expect to get anything today.”
The Dons are still in pole position to grab third but they’re now just two points ahead of Hearts going into the last two games. They led at Tynecastle through Mattie Pollock’s header but were pegged back by Josh Ginnelly’s strike.
Lawrence Shankland sealed a vital three points for Steven Naismith’s men with a second half winner. But Robson refused to be downbeat and hailed the progress his team has made.
He said: “Compared to the last time we were down here, we're a totally different team now. And the positive for me is that we've got Graeme Shinnie, Duk and Ross McCrorie all to come back.
“It's not easy to come here without those players. That's what we've got to look forward to on Wednesday against St Mirren.
“It’s different questions to what I was being asked three months ago. We were 10 points behind and we’re now two points ahead with two games to go and three top players to come back.
“I’m alright, I'm looking forward to it. It was a proper game today, a good scrap. We knew coming here we wouldn't get it our own way because Hearts are trying to chase us down.”
At full-time, Naismith ran on to the pitch in celebration instead of shaking Robson’s in the technical area. The Hearts boss later apologised but Robson said: “Naisy got a bit excited and he should have come over to shake our hands. He'll know that and we’ll sort it out later.”
