Aberdeen’s Premiership third-place chances may have disappeared into the Paisley air on Saturday, but how did referee Ross Hardie and the other officials perform in the 1-0 defeat to St Mirren?
The man in the middle was assisted on VAR by Steven McLean.
The Dons thought they had taken the lead at the SMISA Stadium through Jeppe Okkels, before a VAR check ruled out the effort.
At the time I had no idea what VAR was checking or why the goal had been disallowed.
Once the referee was sent to the monitor, he disallowed the goal due to handball by Kevin Nisbet in the build-up.
To be honest, I think it was so harsh.
Nisbet was nudged in the back while he was in the air, causing his arm to go up and make slight contact with the ball.
It was unfortunate for Aberdeen the nudge was probably not quite enough for a foul – meaning they were double-losers in the situation.
Buddies should not have had free-kick they scored from
And the frustration did not end there for Aberdeen, as they conceded on the hour mark after a set-piece – a free-kick St Mirren should not have been awarded by the referee.
Just moments before the Buddies were awarded their foul, Aberdeen’s Graeme Shinnie was clearly fouled while breaking forward.
The incident was almost identical to the one ref Hardie awarded St Mirren their free-kick for just seconds later.
Given the circumstances, there was no recourse under the rules for VAR to intervene and help Hardie correct his mistake/inconsistency.
Of course, Aberdeen needed to defend better and deal with the free-kick… but they should not have been in the position in the first place.
St Mirren v Aberdeen referee Hardie fails to rein in time-wasting tactics… again!
Hardie also failed, once again, to control time wasting tactics in Paisley – something I previously criticised the whistler for in the Motherwell game at Pittodrie recently.
Several times, he pointed to his watch, instead of just booking St Mirren goalkeeper Zach Hemming, allowing the goalie to slow down the game.
He also failed to punish the goalkeeper holding on to the ball for too long. On one occasion Hemming held on to the ball for 18 seconds – three times the time allowed.
Overall, I thought the referee had a terrible game, and it is not the first time I have said it this season.
It is not a surprise Scotland hasn’t had a match official at a major international event since Euro 2016 if this is the standard.
Hardie struggles to control games, and he is always so rash with his yellow cards.
There were genuinely some baffling decisions for both teams which just completely lacked any footballing common sense.
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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