Stephen Robinson says VAR costing St Mirren two players a season as he claims clubs were mis-sold tech

Stephen Robinson reckons Premiership sides were mis-sold VAR. And the St Mirren manager insists it’s costing his club the equivalent of two first team stars every season.

Buddies boss Robinson was left frustrated last week after losing an appeal over James Bolton’s red card against Dundee - a decision that came after a VAR review and which sees the defender serve the second of a two-game ban against Livingston today. On Thursday an independent review board admitted 13 instances of the video technology being wrong in the second round of Premiership fixtures. St Mirren never featured in any of those 13 cases but Robinson remains to be convinced it has improved the game.

Asked if the technology was providing value for money he said: “No. We spend in the region of £120,000 on it depending on your league position. That’s two players for me. What we’re getting out of it...100 per cent I’d rather take the two players.

“I was a big advocate of it when it came in. The way it was sold maybe isn’t the way it’s being done. Every decision’s being scrutinised. We’re being refereed from a room now as opposed to letting the referees make decisions. By all means call them over to have a look but don’t pre-empt what they are thinking.

“There’s lots of things that can be improved on it. I was a big advocate for it because any technology that can help is to be looked on as a plus. But it’s maybe not been utilised the way it was made out it was going to be. For me it would just be offsides and goal-line technology it would be used for.

“Let the referees referee the game. They will make mistakes. But they’re making mistakes anyway. I’ve not see the ins and outs of it (Thursday’s review) myself and obviously we’re not involved in any of them