SFA’s Willie Collum suggests St Mirren’s Shaun Rooney should have been sent off against Kilmarnock

On 28 September, Lennon Miller’s second goal for Motherwell against St Mirren was reviewed for a possible handball, but was upheld and Collum said VAR officials were “unable to consider the categorical evidence” about a foul.

Later in the same game, Well’s Dan Casey handled the ball on the goal line to deny Killian Phillips a goal and received a straight red. Mark O’Hara had the resulting penalty saved.

“In our opinion, this is the right decision,” Collum said. “It’s really good teamwork between the assistant referee and the referee. There is nothing there for VAR to think the referee made a mistake in showing the red card.”

The following day there was a similar incident at Ibrox where Rangers defender John Souttar was penalized for handball in the box following a VAR review. Mykola Kuharevich’s penalty for Hibernian was saved and the home side maintained a 1-0 lead until the end.

“It’s the right decision for us,” Collum said of the Souttar incident.

“We would not support a red card, this is not an obvious opportunity to score.

“This is certainly a punishable handball. There is every opportunity for the goalkeeper to save this shot. The fact that no card was shown can be debated.

“If the referee had considered John Souttar’s actions here to be deliberate, he would probably have received a yellow card. As the referee and VAR team do not consider this to be a deliberate handball, there is no need for a yellow card.”

The position of goalkeeper Jack Butland’s feet in relation to the goal line was also discussed and Collum was “glad” there was no need for another attempt.

Collum also reiterated that there was a mistake in the last Scottish Premiership game before the split, Rangers’ 2-0 victory over St Johnstone on 6 October.

It was announced earlier this week by the SFA’s Major Incident Review Panel that St Johnstone defender Aaron Essel should have been penalized for pulling the shirt of Rangers striker Cyriel Dessers.

“This is the wrong decision,” Collum added. “We expect a penalty here and expect the referee to be brought to the monitor to review the decision.”