Hibs question VAR and crowd influence as revelations made over Celtic player's penalty confession

What the Hibs manager said after the 4-1 defeat to Celtic at Parkhead

Celtic's Alistair Johnston is fouled by Hibs' Lewis Stevenson inside the box leading to a penalty after a VAR check. (Photo by Rob Casey / SNS Group)

Hibs manager Nick Montgomery questioned the use of VAR and the crowd influence in decision-making as Celtic were awarded a penalty in his club’s 4-1 defeat for an infringement on Alistair Johnston that even the player himself didn’t believe had occurred.

The award - following contact made by Lewis Stevenson - allowed the home side to go 3-0 up in the 51st minute and Montgomery didn’t suggest it impacted on the outcome. He did, though, feel it was unwarranted - given after John Beaton was asked to look at the pitchside monitor by VAR operative Gavin Duncan - and that his team, yet to receive a penalty during his three-month tenure, are treated differently by officialdom in such instances.

“Look, it’s one of them. The player who actually went down didn’t even think it was a penalty,” the Hibs manager said. “He didn’t think he got touched. He said that to the boys afterwards. Again, if we are going to go to VAR and look at every incident there are going to be a lot more free-kicks, a lot more yellow cards, a lot more penalties. Because when you slow everything down, there is always some sort of element where you can maybe change a decision. But he’s right at that moment, he’s not going to get the ball, it hasn’t affected where the ball is going to go, he is already falling down and Lewis Stevenson comes down the side of him not through the back of him. If he had gone through the back of him, no problem, give a penalty.

“But when you are talking about a crowd like this in big places when they all shout . . . Maybe I will get the Hibs fans to shout every time somebody goes down. Maybe we will get a penalty because we haven’t had one yet. But that wasn’t the reason we lost the game, I thought the ref was actually good tonight. That incident? Deliberating over whether there was a touch? That was disappointing. But I thought at that point it did kill our momentum of getting into the game a little bit because the boys were starting to play some good stuff. We knew we could cause them some problems and we did. But big Joe Hart is a good keeper and he stood strong, especially in that first half. We go away with no points, that doesn’t change. But we will definitely take some positives.”