Referees Are Helping Celtic’s Opponents – St Johnstone Player Reveals

St Johnstone star Cammy MacPherson has revealed the referees are helping Celtic’s opponents through their poor use of VAR since it was introduced.

The Perthshire club visited Celtic Park on Christmas Eve and were soundly beaten 4-1. However, MacPherson admitted Kevin Clancy taking so long to get the game back up and running between VAR decisions helped St Johnstone players.

Celtic’s relentless attacking style can really zap the energy out of their opponents, but when they’re getting three or four minutes a time to catch their breath, it allows them to gather themselves.

“When Celtic get going at that intensity they’re hard to stop,” MacPherson told the Scotsman.

“Maybe they took the foot off the gas a wee bit but I thought we were more compact in the second half and got a goal to show for it. It’s sign of how much we’ve progressed that we’re feeling disappointed that we didn’t get anything from the game. In previous games it’s been about limiting the score but we went into this one with an attacking formation and the plan was to press them high up the pitch.”

Ange Postecoglou wasn’t at all happy with the amount of interruptions and how long it took to get the game back going. The amount of time it took to call Celtic’s goal onside was ridiculous, as replays showed it was easily on. There was another massive pause when St Johnstone scored their one and only goal.

The final major pause was at the end of the game when the referee and VAR waited until the St Johnstone keeper has received treatment and was back on his feet before then going over to the screen to check for a potential red card incident.

It’s amateur hour stuff and if this happens in tight games, it will lend an advantage to our opponents. Our quick, fast paced football will be less effective if our opponents can constantly regroup.