It was great to see Hibs get back to winning ways, especially as the victory came courtesy of another two goals for World Cup hopeful Kieron Bowie.
Only three players have scored more Premiership goals than Bowie this season and while his first against Falkirk was a thing of beauty, it was his second that gave me the most satisfaction as it was a real poacher’s finish.
Advertisement
Bowie needs to find himself in between the goals for that type of goal more often, sniffing out these opportunities will go a long way to booking himself a place in Steve Clarke’s squad come the summer.
Martin Boyle set Hibs on their way to victory but it was disappointing to see Sportscene pundit Richard Foster having a go at the forward for winning a penalty.
For an incident that was immediately spotted by the referee and verified by VAR, the statement that Boyle would have gone down anyway without contact was outrageous, and really unfair on the player.
It was a clear penalty – the conversation should have been about how the Falkirk defender avoided a red card as there was no genuine attempt to play the ball, rather than a hypothetical dive from Boyle.
Advertisement
Finally, with Aberdeen chairman Dave Cormack calling for a time limit on VAR interventions, it’s far more important to get correct decisions than quick ones. Falkirk scored an offside goal on Saturday, VAR corrected the on-field decision but it took longer than 60 seconds to come to the conclusion.
Is Cormack seriously suggesting that the better outcome there would have been to let the goal stand?
VAR needs to improve, of that there’s no doubt, but this rush to ignore the times it corrects mistakes in favour of dwelling on the ones it gets wrong is tantamount to throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
It’s made a huge difference in the number of correct calls in the game, and we should focus more on improving the in-stadium experience for fans than limiting VAR’s effectiveness with arbitrary time limits.
You can find Matty Fairnie at Longbangers podcast
