Pressure built on Aberdeen boss Barry Robson following a demoralising 1-0 defeat to Kilmarnock at freezing Pittodrie on Wednesday – but how was the refereeing performance in the Premiership fixture?
Matthew MacDermid was the man in charge for the Dons v Killie.
And, within three seconds, the referee and VAR already had an early decision to make.
Aberdeen played kick-off straight back to keeper Kelle Roos and ex-Reds forward Marley Watkins appeared to shove home defender Stefan Gartenmann as he moved to pressure the ball.
Ref MacDermid was unmoved over the incident and play continued while a VAR check was carried out in the background, with no further action taken.
At the time, inside the ground, I thought it could have easily been a booking and was really surprised the referee didn’t give anything at all. He must have completely missed it.
However, at least one of the officials should have caught it – surely.
What makes it worse is, when I reviewed the footage and saw what had actually happened in those early moments, my opinion over Killie attacker Watkins’ actions and the severity of punishment they warranted completely changed.
Is three seconds into a match too early for a red card? 🟥
Should Marley Watkins have been sent off for this last night? 🤔#BBCFootball pic.twitter.com/19RsE6jbeN
— BBC Sport Scotland (@BBCSportScot) December 7, 2023
Gartenmann moved to block the offensive player – something Aberdeen, especially Slobodan Rubezic, have been doing at the back all season (and have been lucky to escape punishment of their own for).
But Watkins led with an arm and caught Gartenmann in the back of the head.
It was such a silly thing to do within the first five seconds, and I think the referee should have been sent to the monitor to allow him to view it again and make a decision – because it was a potential red card.
Jamie McGrath should have been awarded penalty in what was poor refereeing effort
This missed and then ignored incident after just a few moments of play turned out to be the big officiating talking point of the match.
Aberdeen had the ball in the back of the net via Bojan Miovski later in the first half – but the flag was raised.
There was no real appeal from the Aberdeen players – I think they knew the striker had just strayed offside, so it was good work from the assistant referee and well spotted.
Killie would also have big shouts for a penalty after a shot from Danny Armstrong struck Angus MacDonald.
It clearly hit his back, though, and no penalty was the correct call.
Aberdeen then had two big spot-kick shouts of their own: one for handball and one for a coming-together.
The handball shout, for me, wasn’t a penalty. It was a close-proximity effort which only brushed off the Killie defender’s arm.
However, the second one easily could have been a penalty, as Reds midfielder Jamie McGrath was in front of his man and was brought down. They were not side by side – it was a collision from behind.
Overall, I thought referee MacDermid had a very poor game – arguably the worst performance I’ve seen this season when it came to basic decisions.
He was giving super-soft fouls to both teams. Any time a player went down and grabbed the ball, they were winning a free-kick.
He also didn’t help the flow of the game by constantly stopping Aberdeen from quickly restarting play.
If the ball is not in the correct place, then yes, a free-kick should be retaken. But they were just taken again from the same place.
Finlay Elder was a registered referee for six years and a category 5 official from 2019, with experience in the Highland League, Juniors and Club Academy.
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