Motherwell boss Stuart Kettlewell has revealed that Willie Collum admitted to two VAR mistakes in a conversation between the pair on Monday
Two days after Motherwell’s exciting 4-3 victory over Dundee United, which included several flashpoints, including two significant penalty calls, they had a private conversation.
In the first, Liam Gordon was given a penalty for pulling down Louis Moult, and in the second, Kettlewell believed Motherwell should have been handed a spot kick but it was not given.
In his pre-Kilmarnock press conference, Kettlewell acknowledged that Motherwell should have been handed a penalty kick and that the SFA’s head of refereeing concurred with the Steelmen manager regarding the United penalty. Kettlewell also called Collum to answer the calls.
“I had a really good conversation with Willie on Monday,” Kettlewell stated. It was a brief discussion, and from my perspective, it was a question. In our game, there were most likely three major incidences.
“Our fourth goal had a question mark over it regarding whether or not it struck Apostollos’ arm; based on the images I’ve seen, it seemed to have struck him on his shirt line, which is the decisive element.
Following that, Dundee United scored a penalty that tied the score at one. In my opinion, we should have scored a penalty just before halftime to extend the score to four goals. We all understand the importance and relevance of that, I believe.
It was a worthwhile discussion. I had told Willie that we should keep it private. However, the straightforward result was that we both had the same perspective on the occurrence.
“We saw all the incidents the same way. Everyone knows our feeling as a football club is that it was as clear a penalty as you were going to see.”
Kettlewell was asked on how he thinks VAR has progressed since first being introduced to Scottish football in 2022.
He replied: “I thought we started really, really well. I thought a large number of the decisions were pretty much correct. I thought we were making real strides on that front.
“From my personal point of view, I don’t think that’s been great of late because I’ve mentioned three major incidents in games that could have a defining factor in what the outcome of the game is.
“I don’t feel it’s been as consistent as it was at the start of the season. But I need to go on record and say the transparency and communication has dramatically improved.”
