The VAR truth lies somewhere in the middle - low-key debut, Hearts-Celtic madness, gripes

It's only been here one weekend but VAR has already made its presence felt in Scottish football.

A relatively low-key debut at Easter Road on Friday night, where video assistant referee Willie Collum was required to make minimal intervention in St Johnstone's 2-1 win over Hibs, proved the calm before the storm.

The real drama came at Tynecastle Park on Saturday – the first live televised Scottish Premiership fixture to feature the new system – where referee Nick Walsh and VAR official Steven McLean were front and centre of the action as Celtic claimed a 4-3 victory over Hearts.

The teething problems which had been forewarned were clear to see. Long awkward delays while video replays were poured over 38 miles away at Clydesdale House meant the match took over two hours to complete. As the novelty factor wears off, this process will undoubtedly need to be sped up.

By the 44th minute we had the first major intervention as the benefits of the VAR system were manifested in Hearts being correctly awarded a penalty kick that they would have otherwise been cruelly denied.

Walsh's failure to blow when Cammy Devlin was blatantly upended in the Celtic box was a strange one, but even more bizarre was the time it took for VAR to summon him to the pitch-side monitor. These issues will need ironed out in the weeks ahead but the right decision was reached in the end and VAR was already repaying on the investment made.

There was barely time to bask in the glory of it all when VAR was shrouded in controversary. A James Forrest ball into the Hearts box struck the arm of Michael Smith, but Walsh was unnmoved, and after the briefest of VAR checks, it was play on.

To have taken so long over a seemingly blatant decision then move on so quickly from a highly contentious one seemed odd, but handballs, by definition, are open to interpretation and more pertinently, VAR is still open to human error.

Hearts are awarded a penalty after a VAR check during their 4-3 defeat to Celtic at Tynecastle Park on Saturday. (Photo by Mark Scates / SNS Group)

It also meant VAR succeeded where Scottish referees have failed over the past 16 months in getting a rise out of Ange Postecoglou. Perhaps the most surprising element of the entire weekend was watching the flummoxed Celtic boss engage in some sarcastic applause on the touchline given how much he prides himself in showing restraint when it comes to reacting to match officials and their decisions.

Celtic were not the only ones to have qualms with VAR over the weekend. Motherwell felt they were denied a review due to a penalty claim coming just seconds before the full-time whistle in their 2-1 defeat to Aberdeen.

In the same game, the Dons had cause to praise the new system, without which Bojan Miovski's perfectly legitimate opener would not have stood due to an incorrect offside flag. Livingston also had Morgan Boyes sent-off in their 1-1 draw with Rangers at Ibrox following a VAR check and their manager David Martindale had no complaints.

Whether VAR is good or bad for the game will be debated over the coming weeks, but based on the opening weekend, the truth lies somewhere in the middle as both VAR-lovers and VAR-sceptics will be able point to incidents to back up their views.

Like it or not though, it's here to stay.