Robbie Neilson admits he's "disappointed" at VAR for not overturning Kevin Clancy's decision to send off Jorge Grant.
It was an eventful clash at Tynecastle as Motherwell clawed it back from 2-0 down to equalise before Lawrence Shankland 's late penalty kept the three points in Gorgie. Hearts had to do it all with ten men after Grant saw red for a late challenge on Callum Slattery, with whistler Clancy's quick decision not challenged by the VAR room.
Neilson compared it to the incident at McDiarmid Park last weekend, where St Johnstone 's Jason Brown was sent off before VAR intervened to downgrade it to a yellow. Neilson felt the same should have applied in Gorgie, and was left bemused at VAR for not stepping in. Neilson said: "I'm very disappointed (in the decision). I didn't think it was a red card. The referee has made the decision quickly but I'd have thought that, with VAR, he'd have gone and had a look at it.
"His explanation to me was that Jorge was high and out of control. Looking at it, I don't think he was high at all, I don't think he was reckless.
"But Kevin decided not to look at the monitor. It's his prerogative but I'm sure he'll look at it again and have a different opinion.
"I think it tells you that there's a lot of discrepancies in it. At St Johnstone last week, the referee gave a red card, VAR asked him to have a look at it and it got downgraded to a yellow. I'd have hoped that would have happened today but for some reason it didn't happen."
Another one of the big talking points was Craig Gordon's foul on Louis Moult that allowed Motherwell to pull one back. The penalty was given but the lack of a second yellow for Gordon raised a few eyebrows and opposing manager Stevie Hammell said: "We never really want that scenario in terms of players getting sent off. But where he is on the pitch, I'd like to have known why it wasn't at least a yellow card.
"Anywhere else on the pitch it's a yellow so it should be in the penalty area - but that's not why we've come away with the defeat so I don't want to dwell on it too much.
"I don't like what (VAR) does to the flow of the game, the stop-start nature of it. It takes away the spectacle. It was a good game today but there was a few things I'd like to see again. In general, as a coach, I don't like what it does but I get why it's here."
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