Derek McInnes rips in to 'poor' Reo Hatate for trying to buy penalty as Killie boss takes aim at VAR offside lines

Derek McInnes questioned VAR’s offside lines by claiming Celtic’s second goal against Kilmarnock shouldn’t have stood.

With his side already 1-0 down at Parkhead yesterday, Luis Palma scored after playing a wall pass off Reo Hatate. McInnes watched Killie’s own club footage at full-time and said the Japanese midfielder should have been flagged. He raised the issue with ref Matthew MacDermid who was instructed by VAR officials at Clydesdale House to award the goal.

McInnes accepts that the VAR hub might have a more conclusive angle. But he felt Hatate was offside before Palma made it 2-0. He said: “Having seen the pictures, it looks offside in the build-up when it bounces back off the Celtic player. So I’m disappointed with that as offside should be clear. When I saw it on the big screen I thought he was offside and when VAR were checking it I was expecting it to be chalked off. There might be better pictures in the VAR hub so any criticism is contained. I’m just viewing it on the pictures that I’ve seen.

“I showed the ref the pictures but he’s obviously dependent on the people in VAR looking at different angles. I saw an angle on my analyst’s laptop. Whether he’s a computer genius and has played around with the lines or not, I don’t know. But it looked offside.”

McInnes was less than pleased with Hatate later in the game when he initially won a penalty for Celtic under a challenge from David Watson. After checking his VAR monitor, ref MacDermid reversed his decision - and the Killie gaffer says Hatate tried to buy the spot kick.

He said: “I thought that VAR decision was correct. My first thought was that Hatate went down far too easily. He’s waiting for contact. If I’m wrong then I’ll apologise. But for me it’s trying to