How VAR, Hearts and Celtic combined to create a chaotic yet compelling spectacle at Tynecastle

James Forrest ushered in what he hopes will be a second century of goals for his beloved Celtic before even this significant moment was rendered a mere detail as a new VAR era in Scottish football erupted in organised chaos.

This is what Scottish football has signed up for. After this, some might well say, bring it on. Others might contend that this admittedly captivating spectacle played right into the hands of those who dreaded the innovation being implemented in Scotland, especially after 150 years of getting by happily enough without it. When once it was the hope that killed you, now it’s the waiting.

There’s no denying it was dramatic though this was not solely VAR’s doing. A football match did manage to break out here as well – an utterly compelling one.

Lawrence Shankland came on after 39 minutes, scored a twenty-minute hat-trick and yet somehow still marched down the tunnel at the end with the match ball while wearing a frown.

After VAR intervention, referee Nick Walsh awards a penalty for a foul in the box by Celtic's Cameron Carter-Vickers on Hearts' Cammy Devlin. (Photo by Mark Scates / SNS Group)

Applause rang out from all four stands as the fans showed their appreciation for the players’ efforts. Are you not entertained? Well, yes. But the new system was not the primary reason. Old fashioned football, complete with defensive lapses and opportunistic finishing, was the winner here. And even with VAR, there were strange refereeing decisions to argue about. Referee Nick Walsh was not invited to head to the monitor when the ball clearly struck Hearts defender Michael Smith’s arm shortly before half time.

But VAR was not why the home team went ahead two minutes into the second half after Shankland’s near-post flick and nor was it why Hearts had managed to throw away this gleefully attained lead within a dozen minutes, as first Georgios Giakoumakis and then Daizen Maeda took advantage of poor home defending to put the visitors 3-2 in front.

Giakoumakis escaped the attentions of Robert Snodgrass to head home Aaron Mooy’s corner while Maeda slid in after following-up Mooy’s saved shot. We hadn’t even reached the hour mark.

It was hard to keep up at times, no more so than when Hearts were awarded a penalty after a VAR check when Moritz Jenz clattered into Cammy Devlin and then, after Joe Hart saved Shankland’s effort before then being beaten by Josh Ginnelly from the rebound, were ordered to retake it after another check. Shankland accepted the second opportunity to secure his hat-trick and make it 3-3. The drama was not yet over. Far from it.

Celtic's Greg Taylor celebrates making it 4-3 in the win over Hearts. (Photo by Craig Williamson / SNS Group)

Substitute Greg Taylor was the unlikely source of the winning goal. Another substitute, Liel Abada, saw his shot strike off a Hearts defender and land invitingly at the feet of the left back, who swept home having been quicker to react than Smith. That, with 76 minutes played, was the end of the scoring but not the intrigue as Hearts desperately fought to secure at least something for all their efforts.

In the end, though, Celtic came closer to stretching their lead and scoring a decisive fifth. Abada miskicked in front of goal and then had a goal chopped off for offside. When Walsh finally blew the final whistle more than two hours after kick-off, with the VAR breaks having helped turn the game into the kind of flawed epic that Michael Cimono would have been proud to direct. It’s just as well it was an early kick-off. There was a lot to process.

Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou had indicated his coolness towards the supposed refereeing aid on the eve of the game when he said he “couldn’t get excited” by its introduction. He was less ambivalent when it came to his feelings here.

He sarcastically clapped the officials, including those in the VAR HQ in a Glasgow suburb, when Celtic’s claim for a penalty was not treated to a second viewing after a Forrest flick had struck Smith’s arm.

His ire was increased due to the decision to review a penalty claim for Hearts and the length of time taken to do so after Walsh initially waved play on when Cameron Carter-Vickers’ upended the excellent Devlin in the opposite box. To be fair, it had seemed an obvious penalty even with the naked eye.

Shankland, meanwhile, had reason to hail VAR. It gifted him a hat-trick when Steven MacLean and David McGeachie, the VAR officials, proved pernickety in the extreme when noticing Ginnelly encroaching before tucking in the striker’s saved penalty.

Shankland was handed a second chance to convert, this time sending Hart the wrong way to join the exclusive club of those who have scored a league hat-trick against Celtic. He is the first Hearts player to do so since Willie Gibson in 1976. Somehow neither player finished on the winning side. Gibson’s Hearts also lost 4-3.

The reason Shankland was on the park was because of yet another injury for the home side, Stephen Humphrys limped off after sustaining a knock and having looked in the mood. His side were already trailing when he headed off – Forrest headed home after Anthony Ralston’s cross had squirted up off Orestis Kiomourtzoglou to present the winger with an easy chance to make it 101 goals for Celtic.

Shankland could not be expected to do much more than come on and add three more to his own tally for Hearts. The first was with one of his first touches after Devlin had been upended in the box. The referee was advised to take another look on the monitor after being initially unmoved by the appeal. Shankland sent his penalty straight down the middle.

Tynecastle was in ferment when he scored again just after the interval after getting to Ginnelly’s cross before Carter-Vickers. Then merry hell really did break loose.

At the end of it all the outcome was as many might have predicted as Celtic found a way to win and Hearts, perhaps just as unsurprisingly, found a way to lose.