St. Mirren players were left infuriated at the blatant handball incident which marred their home loss to Hibernian yesterday.
The match ended 3-0 to the away side, as a Ryan Porteous handball: one of the more obvious ones, was not adjudged to be a penalty kick.
A cross into the Hibernian penalty area was almost carelessly swerved away with both hands by Porteous, as numerous appeals from the St. Mirren players were not enough to influence the referee’s decision to swing their way.
Hibs went on to win the game with goals from Kevin Nisbet, Joe Newell and Martin Boyle, as the opponents were fuming at the refereeing standards.
The Scottish defender jumped to meet the cross and used both of his hands to bring it down inside the penalty area: right in front of the referee who was not willing to adjudge it as a spot kick.
St Mirren fans had a lot to complain about on the night, as team selection had already been hampered by all three of their goalkeepers being in quarantine diagnosed with the coronavirus, as the match official made matters even worse for them.
The Edinburgh outfit are only behind Rangers by three points at second place in the Scottish Premiership this season, and the referee’s decision to not give them the decision was a gift which was happily accepted by them. St Mirren were not lucky enough as a loss brings them down to seventh in the table with only seven points, in a relegation qualification spot.
And it might be safe to say that fans will now voice the need even more for better refereeing in the top tier of Scottish football, and spark the debate for VAR in a country where it seems as far away as ever.
Check out the blatant handball from Ryan Porteous below –
