Struggling Aberdeen were dealt a late sickener to lose 1-0 to Dundee United at Tannadice on Sunday night, but how did referee John Beaton, supported on VAR by Greg Aitken, perform?
In my opinion, there were two big refereeing calls en route to a result which means Jimmy Thelin’s Dons have now gone eight games without victory.
The first call came in the first half when United were awarded a penalty by Beaton for handball.
A scramble in the box resulted in a brilliant initial block by Dons defender Nicky Devlin, before he sprang up to block a second effort.
The ball did appeared to hit a hand, but the ball and Devlin’s hands was very central to his body, so my first reaction was no penalty.
His arms weren’t outstretched, nor had Devlin made himself bigger, and it did not reach the criteria required for the referee to award a penalty.
Thankfully for the Reds, VAR intervened and ensured the correct decision was reached.
Aberdeen’s Ester Sokler had to play on with booking
To be honest, it was a pretty poor call initial call from referee Beaton, with a furious Ester Sokler picking up a booking for his complaints.
While VAR got involved, and Beaton overturned the penalty award, a quirk of the system is Sokler still had to play the rest of his minutes on the pitch a caution.
Obviously, this is because the authorities are trying to stamp out dissent towards officials, but Sokler doesn’t get booked without the bad decision being made by the referee in the first place.
Polvara push was identical to other fouls given by Beaton in game – so why no Aberdeen free-kick?
The second big call from the referee during Dundee United v Aberdeen at Tannadice came in the dying embers of the game.
Aberdeen‘s Dante Polvara went down after nudge in the back as he shielded the ball in Dundee United’s half.
However, the free-kick was awarded to Dundee United due to the American grabbing the ball with his hands on the deck.
The United set-play then led to the long throw which won them the game.
The big question is, of course, was Beaton correct to award the free-kick to Dundee United instead of Aberdeen?
I don’t think there was much contact on Polvara, but, equally, it is the type of foul you see given all the time…
In fact, the referee gave very similar fouls throughout the game, for both teams. Now, these were mainly defensive free kicks – but what is the difference? Why is the threshold different for attacking fouls?
The referee needs to be consistent. If he is going to award soft defensive free-kicks, then he has to do the same the other way round.
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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