Pundits disagree on major Celtic VAR talking point as 'definitive proof' claim made in disallowed goal

Former Rangers striker Kris Boyd believes Celtic were wrongfully disallowed a goal in their 1-0 win over St Johnstone, while Sky Sports pundit colleague James McFadden reckons VAR was right not to intervene.

After Mika Baur already put the Hoops a goal to the good at McDiarmid Park, fellow new signing Haissem Hassan thought he’d put the game to bed in the 65th minute. Sebastian Tounekti drove the ball down the left hand side before his looping cross found Kasper Hogh at the back post. The striker cushioned his header down to Hassan who fired the ball into the net - but the linesman’s flag was up.

As all eyes turned to referee Matthew MacDermid, VAR chose not to intervene despite replays showing the ball was in play when Hogh made contact. This is because the view of the ball was obstructed from the cameras when in the air, therefore an inconclusive verdict meant the officiating team had to stick with their original decision.

Sky Sports studio split on key incident

During the post-match Sky Sports analysis, Boyd simply said he thought the assistant got it wrong and that the ball never left the field of play. He said: “They’ve got it wrong. I think it’s in play but also you can’t argue with the rules.”

Meanwhile former Saints striker McFadden claimed that once it was disallowed on the pitch, VAR couldn’t intervene. He added: “There’s no way of telling, so you have to stick with the on-field decision. You need definitive proof to tell the assistant he’s wrong; you don’t have that here

“We can say we think the ball stays in all we like - it doesn’t matter. The assistant referee is along the line of the cross, he’s determined it’s out. We can say we think he’s wrong but we can’t prove that he’s wrong, therefore there is not a chance that’s getting over turned.”

O’Neill on St Johnstone victory.

In the end, the incident had no bearing on the result, as the Hoops picked up three points in Perth to continue their flawless start to the Premiership campaign. Manager Martin O’Neill made four changes from the side who beat St Mirren last weekend, including leaving out in-form marksman Camilo Duran. Despite the need for squad rotation in an intense upcoming run of fixtures - starting with Rangers at Ibrox on Sunday - the Hoops boss claims he won’t be dropping the Colombian again any time soon.

He said: "[Duran's] just been class. He looked tired in the game on Saturday, but I'm not surprised for the amount of things he does for us, both with the ball, which is terrific, and also the work that he does off it. He's second only to Daizen Maeda in terms of closing players down. So, I wanted to try and see if we could do without him, and the answer is probably not."

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