Willie Collum is eventually going to have to front up and explain clearly why Don Robertson wanted to disallow Celtic’s injury time goal in Paisley
Eric Knott 
PAISLEY, SCOTLAND - SEPTEMBER 05: Celtic's Shumaira Mheuka celebrates at full time during a William Hill Premiership match between St Mirren and Celtic at The Marbill Coaches Stadium, on September 05, 2026, in Paisley, Scotland. (Photo by Paul Devlin/SNS Group via Getty Images)
In the 92nd minute of Celtic’s game in Paisley last Saturday night, a decent through ball from Benjamin Nygren was played to 18 year old Shim Mheuka.
To the naked eye, he looked to be onside.
The pass looked to have been correctly timed.
The linesman’s flag stayed down as he raced clear and drew Jacob Chapman off his line in the St. Mirren goal.
Chapman’s advances were to no avail, and Mheuka calmly rounded the St. Mirren keeper to slot the ball past him into the bottom left corner.
Throughout all of this, the linesman’s flag remained down.
Now, I know Assistant referees delay raising the offside flag until an attacking phase of play concludes.
This is to allow the VAR the time to review tight or marginal scoring opportunities accurately.
You will note that at no point did the Assistant referee Scott Anderson raise his flag to conclude that Shim Mheuka’s goal was offside.
Now, here is where the whole situation regarding Celtic’s disallowed goal becomes murky.
Don Robertson in the VAR room decided it should be reviewed, despite the fact the linesman did not rule it to be offside.
Why did he want it to be reviewed?
The only reason he could want it to be reviewed is because he wanted to disallow the goal.
Once again, why?
And that’s the first question Willie Collum needs to answer.
Secondly, after Robertson decided to review the goal, something highly contentious happened.
The digital lines on the VAR system weren’t working properly to establish a clear graphical perspective.
So Robertson could not establish that Shim Mheuka was in an offside position with his naked eye.
He sent Ryan Lee to the monitor to make a decision he was unable to make.
Now, if he was unable to make the decision to disallow the Celtic goal for offside, how did he think or trust that Ryan Lee could?
In this instance, there was a matter of mere inches in the offside, if it was actually offside at all.
Since there is no conclusive evidence that it was, this is where it becomes controversial.
The Record highlighted Richard Foster’s concerns about the disallowed goal on Sportsound:
It’s a tight one (Duran), you’ll see the other one (Mheuka). I’m still not sure, I’m not sure those lines, cameras, are that accurate, because it is so tight, you are talking a couple of inches there, milliseconds.
A couple of inches, milliseconds?
And Ryan Lee was able to deduce that it was offside with his naked eye?
It’s all very sinister if you ask me.
I think above all else the question that Willie Collum is going to have to answer is why the decision was pursued when nobody was able to conclusively prove it was offside in the VAR room.
The audio of the conversation between Robertson and Ryan Lee is also going to be key to the decision making behind it.
Now, I know a lot of people are going to be saying, why are you bothered about it, you won the game?
That’s fair enough.
We’re bothered about it because if it isn’t highlighted or questioned, a highly controversial decision like that could be the difference between losing or winning a game.
There needs to be transparency from Willie Collum on this one.
Expecting Ryan Lee to make the call on that decision when Don Robertson could not do it in the VAR room makes no sense.
Collum will no doubt run with the story the technology left them down on the night.
Well, the simple solution to that is that the on field decision from Scott Anderson on the line should have been the final call.
The Linesman didn’t raise his flag, so the goal should have stood.
Collum needs to get his story straight with this one.
He needs to front up and explain it accurately and honestly.
If it was human error, it was human error, but the SFA needs to ensure they learn from it.
The most pressing question of all that needs answering is this, why did Don Robertson want to disallow the goal, and why was he so determined to do so?
It will be interesting to see how it’s all addressed.
Over to you Mr. Collum…
Key Takeaways
- Celtic’s goal by Shim Mheuka was not flagged offside by the assistant referee, yet it was controversially reviewed by VAR.
- Don Robertson, in the VAR room, decided to review the goal despite the linesman’s inaction, raising questions about his motives.
- Digital lines for offside determination failed, bringing the validity of the decision into doubt without conclusive evidence.
- The incident highlights the need for transparency and accountability from match officials regarding contentious decisions.
- Willie Collum needs to explain why the VAR wanted to disallow the goal when no clear offside was established.
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A law of the game is that in the absence (temporary or otherwise) of fully functioning technology (VAR), on-field decisions should be allowed to stand. On this occasion, therefore, the law was not applied, with the referee failing to adhere to the rules of his own organisation. Both he and Don Robertson on VAR were culpable. The assistant referee’s on field decision regarding the late ‘goal’, was illustrated by not indicating any ‘off-side’. The fact that the assistant was in a perfect position, compared to the match referee, to observe the move, was presumably disregarded.
When Celtic are involved, Robertson frequently appears anxious/determined (take your pick) to demonstrate his ‘neutrality’, As a result, his decisions frequently – on the field as well as with VAR – unfairly disadvantage Celtic. Wille Collum can especially relate to this situation, and understand exactly what’s happening with Robertson. While possibly providing informal ‘advice’ for his colleague, Collum has a more specific responsibility to deliver retrospective, public honesty. He must also accept the wider challenge of eradicating refereeing performances, such as the latest demonstration in Paisley, where not one, but two officials caused Celtic, yet again, to be disadvantaged, as the laws of the game were ignored. Such obvious, concrete decisions are blatant, and there can be no hiding from the officials’ failings on this occasion. The less obvious, more challenging, issue is the continued existence of individuals unable to officiate matches professionally, and without bias towards, or against, certain teams. Over to you, Mr Collum.
I wrote to Hotline concerning the second goal and told them that Ryan Lee should never referee a Celtic game again but they edited my letter and left that bit out.. Why? SFRA seems determined to stop Celtic at all costs