Missed penalty award for Rangers 'only VAR mistake'

The panel agreed that Cyriel Dessers should have been awarded a penalty

A penalty denied to Rangers against St Johnstone was the only VAR mistake highlighted by the Scottish FA's key match incident review panel for last weekend's Scottish Premiership fixtures.

Three other decisions out of 17 examined were correctly overturned, its latest report concluded.

The panel suggested St Johnstone defender Aaron Essel should have been penalised for a "prolonged shirt pull" that impeded Rangers striker Cyriel Dessers' "movement towards the ball".

Referee David Dickinson did not give a foul and four of the five panellists suggested VAR was incorrect not to intervene during Rangers' 2-0 victory.

The panel, however, agreed with VAR's decision to upgrade Ianis Hagi's yellow card to a red for the Rangers midfielder's challenge on opposition forward Adama Sidibeh in the same match - and suggested that the onfield officials ought to have identified the seriousness of the challenge.

Meanwhile, the panel decided that two decisions during Celtic's 2-1 win over Ross County had been overturned correctly following VAR intervention.

No penalty kick was initially awarded when the ball struck Liam Scales, but the panel agreed that the Celtic centre-half's arm was high and outstretched, making his body unnaturally bigger.

When Ronan Hale's spot-kick was saved by Kasper Schmeichel, there was no signal from the assistant referee for the Celtic goalkeeper being off his line.

However, the panel supported the VAR's decision to intervene and award a retake, from which the striker scored.