Former Scottish top flight whistler Charlie Richmond has claimed St Johnstone's dramatic equaliser against Celtic would have been disallowed by VAR.
Alex Mitchell looked to be the hero in Perth after netting injury time to grab his first senior goal which cancelled out Andy Considine's own goal, but Giorgos Giakoumakis netted a dramatic last-gasp winner to ensure Celtic didn't slip up in the Scottish Premiership title race. However, Richmond has insisted that the introduction of video assistance for referees would have avoided the scare for Ange Postecoglou's men.
He claims that a foul by St Johnstone man Considine would have been picked up and the whistler would have been sent to the monitor, with the centre-back having a grip on Giakoumakis' shirt as Ali Crawford delivered the free-kick before Mitchell fired past Joe Hart. Richmond insists it wasn't the fault of man in the middle at McDiarmid Park Euan Anderson, but reckons when VAR is introduced next month these goals will not be allowed to stand.
He told Football Scotland: "He's (Considine) got a hold of his shirt. It's not a refereeing error because he can't see it. It's really difficult to spot during the general flow of the game.
" But the camera angles will pick that up. The question is whether the holding of the jersey impedes the player from jumping to head the ball away.
"And I think it does. That would be flagged by VAR because there's been an infringement in the scoring of a goal.
"It's a shirt pull and it's led to a goal. Shirt pulling is not part of the game. If you tackle someone and miss the ball, then that's part of a game and a foul.
"But shirt pulling is not part of the game. Players pull shirts because they're caught out or looking for an advantage. It was a foul because it's quite a big jersey pull.
"It stretches the whole of his jersey and it stops the Celtic player from winning the header. It's irrelevant if he was going to win the header or not because he's been restricted in his ability to jump."
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