Baird: VAR and Kyogo put me in a spin
JACK BAird admits his head was spinning at Celtic Park with the wild handball call and dealing with Hoops livewire Kyogo Furuhashi.
The Morton defender was stunned by the VAr penalty decision that opened the floodgates for Ange Postecoglou’s side.
There didn’t look much Efe Ambrose could do when the ball spun off Baird’s boot and on to his arm from close range and the latter reckons the spotkick shot wrecked his side’s solid start.
Baird said: “it was my first time playing with VAr and i didn’t know why we had stopped. it wasn’t an obvious decision.
“i wouldn’t want to be the ref, trying to distinguish what is or isn’t a penalty. it knocked the wind out of our sails because we had a good opening 10 minutes.
“We started well and we thought if we were going to get a goal, it’d be from a set-play. But the penalty happened, they scored again quickly and before you know it we are 4-0 down.”
Ex-St Mirren and Ayr man Baird admits it was a nightmare trying to keep tabs on Kyogo.
He said: “it is probably the best Celtic team i have ever played against. it was so tough, they never stop.
“Kyogo is a really good player and you can see why he is playing at the top.
“His movement is good but sometimes he doesn’t get overly involved, then a minute later he is in the right place at the right time and scores twice.
“He is so hard to defend against. Your head is spinning trying to find him to stop him. it is a good test for us and parts of it i enjoyed. it could have been a long day and we showed character in the second half. We didn’t want them to get another four.”