Ludicrous Alan Forrest Hearts booking was my VAR breaking point and it's time to stick it in the bin - Ryan Stevenson

That's it, I’ve reached my breaking point with VAR.

I’ve been willing to give the telly technology a chance but I’ve simply had it. The time’s come to stick it in the bin. Football used to be the best game in the world because it was the simplest to understand — but I just can’t get my head around what we’re trying to achieve with VAR. I get officials have a hard job and as a player I always tried to understand things from their point of view.

But the final straw for me was the ludicrous decision to book Alan Forrest for diving against Ross County at the end of last month. There were 18,288 people inside Tynecastle that day and the only one who thought the Hearts ace had taken a deliberate tumble was referee Alan Muir. It was a shocking decision even with only the naked eye to judge it. So quite how VAR David Munro couldn’t see that Ross Laidlaw had wiped the winger out with the benefit of dozens of replays is beyond me.

Steven Naismith and the rest of the Hearts hierarchy are absolutely right to be fuming with the chain of events that saw Forrest’s yellow stand on the day as they were also denied the most blatant of penalties. Thankfully for Alan, his booking was rescinded on appeal but Naisy was spot on when he let rip and demanded answers from Crawford Allan last week.

The incident occurred just after the interval at a time when the game was goalless. A spot-kick at that stage could have provided the Jambos with just the spur they were looking for to go on and win the game. Instead, a ludicrous call went against them and they quickly found themselves two down. Naisy’s team managed to fight back for a 2-2 draw but if Hearts do end up missing out on third place this season, Steven will have every right to point to that