Hearts manager Steven Naismith lamented the penalty decision that went against his side in their defeat at Celtic Park, saying that neither of the game’s controversial VAR calls should have been given as spot-kicks.
Hearts were awarded a first half penalty when Lawrence Shankland headed the ball off the arm of Celtic defender Liam Scales, but referee Colin Steven overturned his on-field decision after a VAR review.
Naismith accepts that decision, but he was frustrated that Celtic were then subsequently awarded a penalty of their own after another VAR review in the second half, with the official punishing Hearts full back James Penrice for a handball offence after blocking a Nicolas Kuhn cross.
In Naismith’s view, the two incidents were comparable, and under the guidelines set out by Scottish FA head of refereeing operations Willie Collum this season, neither should have resulted in a spot kick being awarded.
“What the interpretation has been is that there are times the ball hits somebody's hand and there's nothing they can do,” Naismith said.
“We accept that. I just feel that both of them are in the same ballpark. I don't think the distance between James and the ball is great enough that he can get his hand out the way. “But for me there were positives, the way we defended, the attitude of the players, the discipline of the players.
“And we do come away actually having had a couple of good chances, especially in the second half when it was 1-0, Musa Drammeh has an opportunity that, if that goes in the dynamic of the game changes.”
Naismith rued his team’s bad fortune on the day, saying that it was typical of their luck during their current run of seven defeats on the bounce.
“The way things are, I said that during the week, I think everything that could go wrong or any mistake that's made by us is getting punished at the moment, it’s as simple as that,” he said.
“But I think there’s positives, the discipline, the way we worked and the way defensively we understood when to press, when not to press. And the chances that we ended up creating, there were a couple of good ones in there. So that's the positives.
“We've now got a month of games before the international break and we need to win games. But from what I've seen today, I think we'll start picking up points.”
