John Beaton put in a 'fantastic' Old Firm derby display according to former top Scottish referee Steve Conroy - but he was let down by VAR.
The derby ding-dong between Rangers and Celtic was full of surprising moments as the scoreline ended in a 2-2 draw for the ages but there were key decisions made throughout the 90 minutes with VAR in operation for the first time in the famous fixture. And in the eye of storm experienced referee Beaton awarded Rangers a penalty after Carl Starfelt was adjudged to have fouled Fashion Sakala in the box.
At the other end a VAR check was in place after the ball seemed to strike Connor Goldson's hands with Beaton consulting official Willie Collum in the VAR room but with no penalty awarded nor did the whistler go to the monitor. Former grade one ref Conroy admits the officials got the call wrong and that Beaton, despite having a 'fantastic' display, should have been given the chance to review the incident
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Speaking to OLBG, 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. Hehad 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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