Steven Naismith frustrated by handball calls as Hearts lose at Celtic

Hearts head coach Steven Naismith felt there were inconsistencies in interpretation after his side twice came out on the wrong side of two VAR handball calls in a 2-0 defeat at Celtic.

Colin Steven reversed a first-half penalty award for Hearts after Lawrence Shankland’s header hit the arm of Liam Scales.

The referee gave a spot-kick for Celtic in the 52nd minute after again being called to the monitor to review an appeal for handball against James Penrice, who had blocked Nicolas Kuhn’s cross.

Arne Engels tucked home Celtic’s penalty and fellow deadline-day signing Luke McCowan curled home the second goal in the 89th minute to consign Hearts to a seventh consecutive defeat.

Naismith said: “I don’t think our penalty is a penalty in the guidelines in terms of the distance between the players. But I also don’t think theirs is a penalty.

“It hits his arm, but for me there’s nothing he can do. The motion is the one that we were shown in pre-season. So I disagree with that and that’s a big moment in the game.

“I just feel that both of them are in the same ballpark. I don’t think the distance between James and the ball is great enough that he can get his hand out the way.

“Everything that could go wrong or any mistake that’s made by us is getting punished at the moment, as simple as that.

“But I think there’s positives: the discipline, the way we worked and the way defensively we understood when to press, when not to press. And the chances that we ended up creating, there were a couple of good ones in there.”

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers felt the referee was ultimately right both times.

“When you look at it, I think the rules are pretty clear,” he said. “I think both were grappling, the ball comes down on to his (Scales’)