Kris Boyd brands Rangers v Kilmarnock officials 'shocking' and points the finger at VAR guy's 'level'
Kris Boyd has branded by officiating at Ibrox in the first half of Rangers' clash with Kilmarnock SHOCKING – as he raised questions over VAR official Steven Kirkland.
It was an eventful afternoon for the man in the middle David Dickinson, particularly in the opening exchanges, as VAR played a huge role in Govan. The whistler was praised by former Rangers striker Kenny Miller for his 'really strong' call after sticking with his original decision after just two minutes to not give the hosts a penalty upon being sent to the monitor for a handball check. But it was the role of the man on the monitor that had Boyd baffled as to why he even recommended a check.
Speaking in the Sky Sports studio at the break, Boyd explained: "Yeah and I am going to go back. I said the referee has had a shocker, he has made some bad decisions but I want to clear that up. It is the officials that have had a shocker. They are meant to be working as a team and I am looking at Steven Kirkland on VAR. That is not a penalty. This set the tempo.
"Fair play to David Dickinson for going over and continuing with his on-field decision but you look at the time it took to get to that. You can understand why the fans and everybody is frustrated. The inconsistency, you have got to be stronger. You don't want to speak down on people but you have got to ask yourself, 'What level of referee is Steven Kirkland? Why is he officiating VAR?' We have got full-time VAR referees. Why are they not operating our machines?"
Chris Sutton added: "I take Kris' points. The (Corrie) Nbada incident for handball was two and a half minutes. We could see it within, not that we know everything, most that know anything about football could see within 15 seconds. Why does it take that long? The early stages there was to much re-refereeing and that is not what we want."