On Saturday, Aberdeen overcame a relatively poor performance to win a scrappy game at St Johnstone 1-0, and claim three vital Premiership points in the race with Hearts for third. But how was the officiating in the clash?
Below, our expert Finlay Elder gives his view on the performances of referee Colin Steven and his supporting cast of officials, including VAR.
How did they fare? And what impact did they have on the game?
Ref Steven needed VAR to call Considine-Miovski incident correctly
Within the first five minutes at McDiarmid Park, referee Steven had a massive decision to make.
As the ball was played through to Aberdeen’s North Macedonia international striker Bojan Miovski, long-time Dons player Andy Considine, giving chase, made contact with the forward.
The referee initially gave the Reds a penalty, with Considine receiving no punishment.
Straight away I thought the referee might have got this decision wrong.
On Saturday, ref Steven would correctly be sent to the VAR monitor to review the challenge.
I actually thought Miovski had taken a bit of a dive. He certainly went down quite theatrically.
However, the VAR replay clearly showed contact between the left foot of Considine and the left foot of Miovski. It also showed the contact occurred just outside the box.
As a result, the referee reversed both of his decisions – no card turned into a red and a penalty turned into a free-kick.
Correctness of Shinnie dismissal hinges on words he used to ref for first booking
St Johnstone were then claiming for Aberdeen to receive a red card following a challenge from Miovski – a high boot in the 36th minute.
In my opinion, there was absolutely nothing in the challenge – he was looking at the ball and it wasn’t too high of a challenge.
Graeme Shinnie would, however, be sent off in the 90th minute, after receiving his second yellow card of the match.
His first yellow would be given for dissent, after the referee didn’t award a foul on team-mate Luis “Duk” Lopes.
The captain usually is the one player on the park who is allowed to talk and discuss decisions with the referee – this, however, does not mean they aren’t subject to the laws of the game.
Unfortunately for Duk, unfairly or otherwise, he has gained himself a reputation as someone who goes down easily under the challenge of a defender.
In this case, it was absolutely a foul on the Cape Verde international, and the complaints from Shinnie were certainly justified.
If Shinnie said something to the referee which was worthy of a booking, then it is still a booking – a silly booking, which was backed up by a silly challenge for his second booking.
With the Dons looking to hold on and close out the game, the captain would make it that bit more difficult.
Shinnie would cleaned out Drey Wright on the touchline, in a nothing area of the pitch.
A clear and obvious caution, which thankfully didn’t impact the end result.
- Finlay Elder has been a registered referee for six years and a category 5 official since 2019, with experience in the Highland League, juniors and Club Academy.
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