Motherwell boss isn't in support of VAR and claims it's changing how the game is played

Stuart Kettlewell declaring he’s no longer in support of VAR won’t surprise too many people who have been paying attention to him this season.

But the Motherwell boss says he has had to tell his players to change their game to accommodate it, and reckons that fundamentally defeats the point of the technology.

The independent review panel monitoring the performance of VAR in Scotland says 10 mistakes were made in the third round of Premiership fixtures, between the first weekend of February and April 13.

One of those was the failure to award Motherwell a penalty for a Graeme Shinnie hand-ball in a 1-0 defeat at home to Aberdeen.

The Fir Park club were also incensed when Jack Vale was shown a straight red card in the 1-0 defeat to Aberdeen at Pittodrie on Saturday for a high foot challenge on Jack MacKenzie, which they appealed, and lost.

When asked if he was in support of VAR, Kettlewell said: “No I’m not. I don’t believe that it’s creating a better spectacle, that it’s there for fan enjoyment, or even for that raw emotion for players and managers and coaches that when your team scores a goal or something happens in a game – but I also have to say that I felt we were going to get to the sharp end of the right outcome, being punctual with decisions.

“I knew it was never going to be perfect from day one, but incrementally we would start to see improvements in those decisions.

“I’m not so sure that, from all the incidents we’ve seen, that there has been a dramatic change and improvement from within that.

“I think we would all enjoy it a heck of a lot more without it.”

On the 26 errors since the turn of the year, Kettlewell said: “We want that number, and a dare say the referees and everyone in Scottish football want that