Maeda & Dalby disallowed goals & St Mirren penalty denial wrong – Willie Collum

“It’s not possible to prove categorically that the ball has crossed the goal line fully.

“On this occasion, we expect the on-field decision to be supported and a goal awarded.”

On Dalby, Collum added: “Do we have 100% conclusive evidence of the ball striking the arm? And we don’t, so therefore the on-field decision should be supported. We need to be categorical, we need to be clear.”

When St Mirren hosted Celtic on 1 March, Johnston was ruled to have challenged Roland Idowu fairly as the visitors led 3-2, with the Premiership leaders going on to win 5-2.

However, Collum said: “For us, this is a penalty kick. This is a reckless challenge.

“The outcome here should’ve been penalty kick and yellow card.”

Collum, though, supported the decisions to not award penalties for handball for Dundee against Motherwell in the Premiership on 26 February and for St Mirren against Heart of Midlothian on 10 February in the Scottish Cup.

He also backed the VAR-awarded spot-kick for Celtic in their 5 February 6-0 league win over Dundee – and the downgrading of Hamza Igamane’s red card to a yellow card in Rangers’ 2-0 loss to St Mirren on 22 February.

An incident in Hearts’ 3-1 league loss to Rangers on 16 February was also discussed.

There was a coming together in Rangers’ penalty box between defender Clinton Nsiala and Hearts’ forward James Wilson shortly before the visitors scored their second goal.

VAR was not called upon to review the Nsiala challenge and Collum said: “We are content with this decision.”

However, Collum felt Killian Phillips should have been sent off against Hearts in St Mirren’s Premiership defeat on 26 February.

The midfielder was initially sent off for an elbow on Jamie McCart, but the on-field decision was downgraded to a yellow on review.

Collum believed Phillips’ challenge merited a red card, even though it was not an elbow.