Celtic’s draw with Motherwell in the Scottish Premiership was a pretty disappointing affair on Saturday afternoon.
The opportunity to go eleven points clear at this stage of the season could have dealt Rangers a huge psychological blow and after watching them draw 1-1 with Aberdeen at Pittodrie, the dropped points at Celtic Park look like an opportunity missed.
However, it could have been all so different had Greg Taylor seen red for his challenge on Motherwell’s Blair Spittal.
Mistimed, the Scotland defender‘s challenge was ankle-high and as TBR Celtic spoke about at the weekend, it seems like Taylor got away with one.
And that is certainly the view of radio pundit, Steven Mills. He believes that whilst the yellow card issued to Taylor for the challenge was correct, the Celtic full-back was lucky that VAR didn’t intervene and issue his marching orders.
Mills said [The Big Scottish Football Podcast], “On this season’s standards? 100%. I’m saying on the standards of this season, that’s a red card.
“If you look at Maeda’s challenge against Atletico Madrid. If you look at the Ross County [James Brown on Yang] one.
“He catches him high with his studs. He didn’t mean it. It’s rubbish but by 2023 standards, that’s a red card.”
To be fair to Mills, he is correct. Why VAR didn’t intervene remains a mystery as they video referee seems to be keen to get involved in every on-field decision.
Brendan Rodgers will be delighted they didn’t. The Celtic manager is not a fan of the technology and if he lost a player again to a retrospective refereeing decision Rodgers would have likely been fizzing.
Celtic now face Lazio tonight where, hopefully, we won’t be talking about VAR but instead be speaking about another famous victory in Rome.
In other news, ‘Minimum’… Peter Martin predicts how many points Celtic will finish ahead of Rangers at end of the season