Derek McInnes has once again questioned VAR on why Celtic were not reduced to 10-men during Kilmarnock's 4-1 home defeat to the champions after Hyu-Gyu Oh was adjudged to have caught Liam Donnelly with a high boot but escaped with minimal punishment.
Kilmarnock got off to the worst possible start as Kyogo Furuhashi, Daizen Maeda and Matt O'Riley all scored for the visitors during a scintillating opening 20 minutes. Kyogo had the opportunity to add at the deficit from the penalty spot but he was denied by the post. However it didn't take long for a fourth goal to arise as O'Riley slotted the ball beyond Sam Walker.
Donnelly reduced arrears for Killie just before the break after pouncing on a defensive mistake and managed to frustrate Celtic throughout the second half, with the Scottish Premiership pace setters failing to add to their supremacy. The big talking point came when the technology told referee David Dickinson not to hand Oh a red card despite it looking like violent conduct on Donnelly. McInnes reckoned there's a lack of consistency in the VAR decisions being made by officials - citing a similar incident against Hibernian earlier in the season. And during the post-match interview with Sky Sports, he raged: "I thought there should've been a red card for Oh as well. We get Vassell sent off for a similar challenge at Easter Road and I don't know why VAR look because it's the same people on VAR that looked at the one at Easter Road. Liam Donnelly has got a full foot in the face. I don't want to see people sent off for that but my player got sent off at Easter Road and I do believe that that was a red card as well."
Kilmarnock gave themselves little chance of getting anything from the game after capitulating in the first 30 minutes and McInnes questioned his side's reaction to losing the opening goals so early into the clash. He said: "The first four minutes we get a chance and we actually start alright but the fragility is when you lose that first goal, and it's an awful goes to lose. It's was so negative and passive when we get a chance to play forward and we pass back and we cause our own problems. It's almost as if there was a fear factor there and I hate seeing my players like that, and I hate seeing my team suffer like that.
"The reaction for us going behind was just awful. We had a 20 minute period there where we lost our way, all confidence, all sense of what we are trying to do. In hindsight, going with two strikers against Celtic is always a risk. We've done it before in a couple games and we've seen the benefit of it but we needed an extra midfielder in there.
"I thought Alan Power done well particularly and we just tried to stop the bleeding really. We obviously get the goal just before half-time but I'm determined to get a Kilmarnock team eventually on the pitch that can take on Celtic and beat them. We didn't give ourselves any sort of chance of that today.
"Celtic were clinical, they found the extra man, they found spaces in between us but football is a mental game, it's played in the head as well as the running about. There's plenty of honesty in the team and I know sometimes it's difficult to see that but the way we lost all sense of composure was awful. The second half was much better and we show a better version of our self, at least our players showed that. We had better opportunities than them I think and we tried to get the next goal so good personality was shown but personality was needed way before then."
READ NEXT
