UP FOR REVIEW
Motherwell snatch win but Fox cries foul over red card
JUST when you thought VAR and the decisions it leads to weren’t quite enough of a web of intrigue, in comes Dundee United head coach Liam Fox to bowl a new googly — with the introduction of the magic, secret camera that no one else sees.
United had striker Tony Watt sent off in the 40th minute of this match as a result of a high tackle on Sean Goss and it kind of sealed their fate after keeper Mark Birighitti had conceded earlier, when failing to keep out a Sondre Solholm header from a corner.
Referee John Beaton had initially missed the incident, but VAR David Munro invited him to see the error of his ways and the red card was duly flashed after a brief visit to the pitchside TV screen.
Fair dos. Watt’s challenge was late and high. It looked a fair call. Fox isn’t so sure, though. Despite all the briefings ahead of the introduction of video evidence making it clear there would be a minimum of six camera angles available at all Premiership games, this evidently is not enough.
Fox saw different footage. He was a little evasive on it at first. Had to be pushed into explaining what it showed him. Yet, he says it changed his mind on what actually went on. And should United launch an appeal — as they surely must — it will be interesting to see what the SFA think when it is presented to them.
‘I am not sure (the sending-off) was the turning point, but it was a very, very big moment in the game,’ said Fox. ‘Having seen the footage the referee saw on the VAR, I could probably say: “Yeah, it looks like a red card”.
‘But I have also seen other footage from different sources that maybe cast a wee bit of doubt over it, so it is a bit of a contentious issue.
‘From what I have seen of the referee’s footage, I’d probably agree it is a red card. But I have also seen other footage that casts a fair amount of doubt.
‘It was obviously a different angle and I see Tony Watt pulling his leg back and making very, very little contact.
‘It is frustrating and frustrating we started the game well and then had a wee spell where we lost our way a little bit. But if I get what I got in the second half, we’ll be okay.’
Fox brought Birighitti back into the side to replace Carljohan Eriksson after being dropped in August in the wake of shipping 11 goals in two games against AZ Alkmaar and Hearts.
It started okay for the Aussie, making a decent save from Connor Shields on 13 minutes, and his most noticeable celebrations after the Motherwell forward put an effort over the bar from 12 yards pointed to a clear determination to make up for past misdemeanours.
Sadly, the old poppadom hands came out to play midway through the first half. Following a quick free-kick, Blair Spittal swung a good cross in from the right and Solholm attacked it impressively to power in a strong header.
Birighitti flung up an arm instinctively, but only succeeded in palming the ball into the air. In the most agonising fashion, it looped high, landed just in front of the goal-line and then bounced over — just seconds before Ricki Lamie followed up to force it into the net under pressure from Watt.
‘I have two No1 goalkeepers and Mark has been training really well,’ said Fox afterwards. ‘So I thought, off the back of a couple of defeats, that might give us a little spark that was needed.
‘Potentially, if Mark gets a weaker hand on it then it maybe goes over the bar — but he gets a strong hand on it and it goes straight up.’
In truth, the opener was no more than the visitors deserved. They had been by far the most enterprising of the two sides until that point and would have been expected to kick on and complete the victory in style when United went down to 10 men five minutes before the interval.
Watt had tried to take a high clearance out of the air in the centre of the pitch and took a bad first touch. The ball skidded between him and Goss and the United striker’s tackle was just too late and too high, sending his rival to the ground in agony.
The red being waved high by Beaton on his return from the pitchside screen was no shock. The curious thing was that Motherwell didn’t make that numerical advantage count. If anything, United were the stronger of the two sides for quite some time after the restart.
Ian Harkes, on at the break for Dylan Levitt, forced a near-post save from keeper Liam Kelly on 54 minutes after Steven Fletcher had laid a Jamie McGrath cross into his path and it looked like we might have a real game on our hands.
From that point onwards, though, nothing of any real note happened. Not that Motherwell are complaining.
After plenty of matches in which they have played reasonably well without reward, coming in here with just one win in eight games, the three points will have been a Godsend.