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The National (Scotland)
The National (Scotland)
Sport
Graeme McGarry

Malky Mackay defends VAR and says ‘you have to swallow it’

ROSS COUNTY manager Malky Mackay has defended VAR and Scottish officials after watching his team lose a one goal lead to fall to defeat at Celtic Park.

County went ahead after being awarded a penalty as Callum Johnson kicked the ball off the arm of Matt O’Riley from close range, leading to complaints from the Celtic midfielder about the latest VAR call to go against his side.

But Mackay says that the technology will in time prove invaluable to Scottish football, and that the authorities had no choice but to adopt it to avoid being left behind.

“Ange was remonstrating and I actually said at the time: 'I'm not sure this is going to be a penalty anyway',” Mackay said.

“So I wasn't getting too excited about it until he actually hit the spot, and even then I was saying 'make sure you get people behind the ball'.

“Listen, there are going to be subjective ones but it's clear in England after a number of years, it's gone up from 83 to 98 per cent in terms of the accuracy of decisions. And the big ones will always be better for us now.

“There is always going to be subjective ones, we have had a couple against us already. You swallow it and get on with it.

“But I was in at the VAR centre two weeks ago and, having seen what it is that they are actually going through, it is going to take a bit of time and it is going to be better for Scottish football.

“Today's one went for us, last week's went against us.”

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