McInnes puts blame on VAR as Killie have to share the spoils
Kilmarnock manager Derek McInnes hit out at VAR official Mike Roncone for failing to ask referee Chris Graham to have a look at the blatant handball by St Johnstone defender Andy Considine before deciding not to award his team a penalty at Rugby Park yesterday.
He believed that decision – and others – cost his side the three points at Rugby Park.
“It’s the one with big Andy,” he seethed. “He was like that to me: ‘I don’t know how I got away with that’. He knew right away it’s hit his arm. It’s fully extended.
“I asked the referee: ‘Why were you not asked to look at that?’
“He told me VAR said they had checked it and there was no need to look at it.
“The fourth official tried to explain to me during the game when he said the ball had hit Kyle Vassell’s arm before he put it over the line.
“He said any player who handles the ball and gets an obvious advantage has to be penalised.”
Killie made all the early running, with 18-year-old playmaker David Watson particularly impressive.
The youngster was making only his second Premiership appearance but looked confident and composed and would have burst into the Saints penalty area after running half the length of the pitch had he not been fouled by Malker Hallberg.
Remi Matthews, who had a busy afternoon, dived to his left to keep out the resulting free-kick from Liam Donnelly as the Ayrshire side piled on the pressure.
They looked as though they had taken the lead in the 19th minute.
Matthews had superbly kept out an emphatic header from Danny Armstrong but, from the winger’s inswinging corner, Kyle Vassell forced the ball home.
Killie’s fans celebrated and the Saints players trudged disconsolately back upfield for the kick-off before the dead hand of VAR intervened.
Referee Chris Graham, who had given the goal originally, then spent two minutes talking to VAR official Roncone and watching replays on the pitchside monitor – which fourth official Scott Lambie prevented home manager Derek McInnes from watching – before ruling it out for a highly debatable handball by Vassell.
The spectators inside Rugby Park were given no explanation for the delay or the decision while officials in Baillieston continue to play Fifa 23.
Killie, to be fair, simply redoubled their efforts and Danny Armstrong took advantage of sloppy defending by James Brown to prod the ball beyond the advancing Matthews but also inches wide of the goalkeeper’s right-hand post.
Just when it began to seem that the goal would never come, it arrived. Jordan Jones flighted a free-kick to the far post, Matthews misjudged it and Joe Wright shot home at the far post.
Saints didn’t offer much in the way of an attacking threat and Killie had a strong claim for a penalty rejected by VAR when Andy Considine knocked the ball away from Wright with his hand.
It wasn’t given and Saints, finally enjoying a spell of decent possession, equalised in some style when Drey Wright drilled a low right-foot shot behind Walker.
Even then, substitute Fraser Murray almost won it for the hosts in the final minute but his low, angled drive was pushed away by Matthews at full stretch and Saints escaped with a point.