Levein ‘trying to keep spirits up’ in survival fight

Craig Levein walked away from St Johnstone’s last clash with Dundee with real concerns about VAR’S use in Scottish football.

Now the Perth boss is hoping for a quiet afternoon on the video front when the teams meet again on Saturday.

Levein was left questioning the offfield decision-making around Dundee being awarded a second half penalty at Dens Park during Saints’ eventual 2-1 defeat in February.

The Mcdiarmid Park manager revealed neither he, nor Dundee counterpart Tony Docherty, knew at which end of the park the Glasgow-based replay officials were checking for a spot kick.

In the weeks since, Saints, like Motherwell, have made their unhappiness with how VAR is being used clear to the SFA, sending a selection of decisions with which they feel aggrieved to Hampden for inspection.

Levein knows VAR provides no excuse for his side’s league position this deep into the season.

But, with the battle for Premiership survival extremely tight, he hopes it does not have as big an impact this week as it did at Dens.

He said: “That was crazy.

“It’s this idea that you stand at the side-line with absolutely no idea what’s going on. None.

“I had no idea, Tony Docherty had no idea, the supporters had no idea.

“Then you get to the fourth official to try to get some idea and he’s holding you off.

“We’ve had plenty to deal with on the VAR front, including some really dodgy ones, which has been disappointing.

“I’ve felt we were let down by the outcomes, then you get an apology.

“We’d put together a selection of incidents where, in our games, the decisions had gone one way and in others they’d gone the complete opposite way.

“But again, I’m not sitting here particularly blaming VAR over goals. We’re in this situation because of the way we’ve played more than anything else.

“It’s just another thing that’s an irritant.”

Levein remains focused on keeping things as light as possible for a squad under pressure to secure the club’s top flight status.

“I thought our performance against Celtic was good at times,” he said Levein of Saints’ last outing.

“It was a hard game, we’d had a bit of time off before that, we’ve had time off after it for the international break.

“This week’s training is really important. If we get it right then get a good performance at the weekend, we’ll then put ourselves in a good spot.”

Craig Levein is ‘keeping things light’ this week.