Motherwell should have been awarded third goal against Rangers, SFA's VAR panel finds

Motherwell should have been awarded a disallowed goal against Rangers after a 2-2 draw at Fir Park, the SFA’s key match incident panel has found.

Philippe Clement’s men fought back from two goals down at half-time to snatch a draw against the hosts on Sunday.

Goals from Apostolos Stamatelopoulos and Tawanda Maswanhise had the Steelmen 2-0 up at the break before a double from Hamza Igamane secured a share of the points.

Prior to Igamane’s equaliser, the hosts had the ball in the net but the goal was ruled out following a VAR check for a foul by Tony Watt on Jack Butland.

Manager Stuart Kettlewell was shown a red card and sent to the stands after remonstrating with referee Kevin Clancy.

The official was not called to the monitor after Watt appeared to have an arm across Butland as the pair jumped.

Now the SFA’s Key Match Incident Panel has deemed the onfield decision for a foul on Butland to have been incorrect.

The review noted: “The panel discussed this decision at length with the majority (3:2) deeming the onfield decision incorrect.

“The majority (3:2) believed that VAR should have intervened and recommended an OFR for the goal to be awarded.

“Two members of the panel highlighted that they didn’t think it was clear and obvious enough for VAR to get involved and the on-field decision should be supported.”

Kettlewell, who was sent off moments before the incident, said: “Again I’m just left bemused by the on-field decision. For me, it’s complete over-protection of a goalkeeper.

“My frustration’s purely pent up from this is now going into the realms of five, six, seven weeks with key decisions that I believe are going against us.

“Some of them have been confirmed as wrong. It’s kind of a pat on the head, we’ve got that one wrong, we’ll move on to the next one.”

The panel unanimously agreed that Motherwell’s opener was correctly allowed to stand despite the ball striking the arm of goalscorer Apostolos Stamatelopolous.

Three members of the panel agreed with Clancy’s decision to book Lennon Miller for a challenge on Oscar Cortes but two members felt VAR should have intervened to recommend a review for a potential red card.

The panel claimed one other major decision was wrong during Sunday’s William Hill Premiership card.

A 4-1 majority claimed Hearts should have had a penalty during their 2-2 draw with Ross County in Dingwall.

Referee Ross Hardie initially awarded a spot-kick after Michee Efete clattered into James Penrice with the visitors 2-0 up, but video assistant referee Gavin Duncan suggested he take another look at it, and it was decided the incident began outside the box and therefore a free-kick was awarded.

The SFA update stated: “The four panellists agreed an initial foul had occurred outside of the penalty area, however they believed there was a further foul committed inside the penalty area and the original decision should have stood.

“One panel member agreed with the VAR intervention as the initial foul was outside the penalty area and in their opinion nothing punishable took place after this.”