Jimmy Thelin continued his flawless start as Aberdeen manager on Sunday, beating Kilmarnock 2-0 at Pittodrie – with one of the key moments in the Premiership fixture the straight red card shown to Killie’s Brad Lyons.
The controversial moment came only a few minutes into the second half.
A poor touch from the Killie captain allowed the ball to fall to the Dons’ Ester Sokler, with Lyons clearly lunging in to to try to regain possession.
While referee Matthew MacDermid showed a yellow card initially, my first instinct was a sending off, as I immediately thought it was a very poor challenge – it was badly timed and there was a fair amount of force.
A VAR review of the incident, for a potential red card, was then recommended, and MacDermid did not take long looking at the footage to upgrade the booking to a red.
Ultimately, you can’t dive into challenges like that and expect to get away with it. In the modern game, it is a red card every day of the week.
Lyons’ foot was high, he made contact on the opponent with his studs and he had a lot of pace going into the challenge… It ticked all of the boxes.
I understand the argument of when you slow things down or look at still images it can look worse than it actually is, but as I said, it looked bad at first glance and at full speed.
I must say I feel as if VAR is getting faster this season and, as it should be, it is now one or two looks and then a recommendation for a review being made, with the referee taking a similarly brief look at the monitor before deciding to stand by or change their initial decision.
Overall I thought referee MacDermid had a fairly good game – much better than some of the other refereeing performances we have seen recently.
I thought Killie’s Liam Donnelly was lucky to avoid a booking, as he committed several fouls and was involved in a bit of a spat with Dons skipper Graeme Shinnie.
The referee did also get in the way of the ball and players on a few occasions.
Finlay Elder was a registered referee for six years and a category 5 official from 2019, with experience in the Highland League, Juniors and Club Academy.
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