‘Causes issues’: Neil Critchley hits out at VAR and says what pleased him most about Hearts win
Jambos are praised for their stunning victory over St. Johnstone.
Neil Critchley maintains that Hearts’ 2-1 victory over St Johnstone in the William Hill Premiership proved they could win ugly.
following twenty-three minutes, a Nicky Clark own goal gave the Jambos the lead following a Blair Spittal corner caused problems for the Saints, and the striker beat the stranded Ross Sinclair.
Midway through the second half, Cammy Devlin wrestled Kyle Cameron to the ground inside the box after Graham Carey’s corner, and Clark made amends from 12 yards out as St Johnstone tied the score. Video assistant Alan Muir made Chris Graham walk to the monitor after a two-minute lag, and then he pointed to the location. However, 13 minutes before the end, Josh Rae was stabbed by Kenneth Vargas to score the winning goal.
Critchley remarked, “You could fear the worst after St Johnstone scored.” We’ve had to put bodies on the line, head, tackle, chase and block, and I must say that the guys’ character was amazing. It’s a huge step forward for us and demonstrates that we can win nasty games.
The former Blackpool and QPR manager disagrees that St Johnstone should have been given a penalty after 68 minutes, and he believes VAR should be removed from the game. “I think this is my first time using VAR, and I don’t like it,” he continued.
“I’ve encountered it at cup games and Blackpool.” It shouldn’t be in the game, in my opinion, because it leads to complications and such; it wasn’t a penalty to me. If you look at it, there’s a coming together. The boy pulls Cammy down first, and once she topples, they both tumble in a heap.
“I believe we’ll be playing 10-a-game if you’re going to impose penalties for those decisions.”
Simo Valakari, the head coach of St Johnstone, disclosed that goalie Sinclair felt something when he was substituted for Josh Rae at halftime.
According to Valakari, Ross needed it to come out since he felt something in his hip and groin. Josh has been putting a lot of effort into his training.
According to the Finnish coach who took over the Perth team last month, they had a chance to stop Vargas’ winner. He went on to say: “Our striker made a rough guess that they would play back then, and a good player switches between two players.” Sven (Sprangler) and Holty (Jason Holt), two of his closest friends, were both given yellow cards.
After passing, he began driving in opposition to our defenders. Were we able to do better? Yes. But that’s football.
