Paul Hanlon warns Hibs can't brush off Celtic hammering as he welcomes VAR debut

Paul Hanlon believes VAR will improve Scottish football as he gets set to take part in the country’s first top-flight match with the system in use.

Easter Road is the venue for the historic event when the home team face St Johnstone on Friday. And the Hibs defender reckons it can only be a benefit to all involved. Hanlon said: “I’m looking forward to it. It’s a helping hand for the referees who come under a lot of pressure with all the big decisions in this country.

“As a centre-half I’m not looking forward to running back as much when it’s a blatant offside. Now I’ll need to run all the way back until the linesman puts his flag up! It might add to my mileage in the game. But at the end of the day if it helps get all the decisions correct then it will be all the better for the game.

“At the start in England everyone was sort of hesitant with their celebrations. But you can see that it’s clearing up decisions. There are big stakes at play in football now, especially in the top leagues, so I think it will benefit us all.

“I understand the argument in terms of it coming in halfway through a competition. But we’ve worked hard to get it implemented so let’s get it rolling and see how it goes.”

Hanlon’s team will head into the game determined to have learned lessons from a painful Parkhead pasting by Celtic. Manager Lee Johnson was furious at the collapse of his team and the skipper made it clear there will be a full debrief on the back of the 6-1 rout.

Sub Elie Youan’s second-half goal lifted no gloom as Hanlon said: “It was a poor performance. You can’t give away early goals. We did that and it put us on the back foot.

“We probably didn’t put enough pressure on them around our box and didn’t get enough contacts with