‘VAR Matthew McDermid is a Celtic fan’, so naturally, he and the rest of yesterday’s officials conspired to ensure the Ibrox side lost…

The unseen Fenian hand was hard at work yesterday, and if truth be told, it has already gone a long way to ensuring the title won’t be headed to Ibrox.

As the immortal cardigan once said, ‘You’re only 3 games away from a crisis at Ibrox’.

Well, according to David Edgar of Heart & Hand ‘fame’, the crisis has arrived.

3 games in and the Ibrox side find themselves 5 points behind their hated arch rivals Celtic already.

Edgar decided to name check Matthew McDermid, yesterday’s VAR, and stated his decision to call Don Robertson to the monitor to be, ‘An absolute disgrace of a decision, it is disgusting’.

Clearly echoing the sentiments of Staunch Del in the aftermath of the penalty awarded to Celtic at Fir Park in the penultimate game of last season.

Now, it’s widely believed that Matthew McDermid is a Celtic fan.

And you don’t have to be a genius to figure out exactly what David Edgar was insinuating in his post match video on yesterday’s game at Ibrox.

Have a look at the below X post, which contains the video in question:

A grim, grim day.

Rangers 1-2 Hibernian Postmatch Reaction 9 Aug 2026 https://t.co/fjCw9nLE8a

— Heart & Hand Podcast (@ibroxrocks) August 9, 2026

The comments at 1:26 in the video are particularly damning of McDermid.

But let’s also look at the on-field referee, Don Robertson.

Robertson’s allegiances are also alleged to be of a Celtic persuasion as well.

So you can immediately see where Edgar is going with this in his video.

He doesn’t say it in so many words, but he is dropping the hint that the unseen Fenian hand was at work at Ibrox yesterday.

However, if you were to look at the below image, you can see exactly why ‘Celtic fan’ Matthew McDermid called Don Robertson to the monitor.

Look at the hold Vanja Dragojevic has on Jason Kerr’s jersey.

Kerr is clearly reacting to that.

That is pretty conclusive if you ask me, and this is what ultimately resulted in the incident being looked at by McDermid in the VAR room.

David Edgar says that Matthew McDermid is, ‘a guy who is at the centre of far too many of these’ kinds of decisions.

The guys in the Record went for the views of Andy Halliday, Scott Brown, and former referees, Steve Conroy and Des Roache.

Needless to say, Andy Halliday did not believe it was a penalty:

I mean, Jason K has his hands on Dragojevic’s face and his right arm is round his neck. I stress, that should never be a penalty kick. Even when Don Robertson is sent to the monitor, I like to think when he has a second look at that he will be strong enough to stick with his original decision, but he has decided to give a penalty.

Scott Brown was a bit more inconclusive in his views.

He believed that Dragojevic started it, but he didn’t see it as a penalty either:

His marking is terrible. It is actually terrible. He is a yard and a half off him, and there is no body contact to start with.

See if he is touch tight to him, he doesn’t get that far away from him and Jason can’t get away from him. Look, I don’t think it’s a penalty, because if that’s a penalty then there is going to be a penalty every game.

100 per cent he [Dragojevic] starts it, but it’s not enough for me. There is always going to be contact in the game.

Roach and Conroy slapped it down immediately:

Absolutely incredible decision, both are at it. No way you can punish one and not the other That’s all down to VAR. Could be a long season if this is what’s deemed acceptable.

So, was Matthew McDermid correct in calling Don Robertson to the monitor?

Well, based on the chunk of Jason Kerr’s jersey in Dragojevic’s hand, I think he was.

It started with that, and ended up with Kerr on the ground underneath Dragojevic.

I think that once both the VAR and on field referee have seen the jersey hold, the decision was straightforward enough after that.

In Scottish football (which follows the IFAB Laws of the Game), if a defending player tugs an opponent’s jersey inside the penalty box and it impedes the attacker’s movement or ability to play the ball, the referee must award a penalty kick and judge any additional disciplinary action based on the impact of the hold.

Well, the impact of the hold was that Jason Kerr ended up on the deck.

The additional disciplinary action was a yellow card.

Most pundits who have seen the incident say that the two players were at it, but crucially, Kerr does not grab a chunk of Dragojevic’s jersey.

Unfortunately for Dragojevic, he does grab Kerr’s.

I think if he hadn’t, then it wouldn’t have been a penalty.

But because he did, the VAR and the referee went by the letter of the law, and awarded the penalty on that basis.

So, the likes of Edgar can scream and wail, and drop hints that because the VAR is a Celtic fan, this penalty was awarded.

But it doesn’t change the fact he was going by the rulebook.

He saw an incident where two players hit the deck in the box.

He examined it closely, and deemed it worthy of the referee’s attention.

Once both the referee and the VAR had seen the jersey hold, the outcome was inevitable.

No conspiracy at play here.

No unseen Fenian hand.

But let them scream it from the rooftops at Ibrox.

I’m sure once this season concludes, and they haven’t won the title yet again, they’ll point to the penalty decision that caused them to fall 5 points behind Celtic on match day 2.

Contrived and concocted by Celtic facing referees.

It’s going to be a long season.

For them, at least.

But I’m sure we’ll see plenty of controversial decisions go against us as well this season.

That’s what happens when you have amateur referees who are not forced to declare their allegiances.

Because of that, decisions like yesterday’s are always open to ridiculous conjecture like David Edgar’s.

There will always be an avenue to blame officials because of their alleged allegiances.

Get them to declare who they support, and that ends immediately.

It really is that simple.

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