Hearts boss Vrancken’s fury as VAR intervenes to disallow ‘clear’ goal

Hearts boss Wouter Vrancken hit out at the officials after they ruled out what he believed was a ‘clear’ first-half goal for his side in Saturday night’s 1-1 draw at Kilmarnock.

The visitors thought they had taken an 11th-minute lead after Killie defender Cathal McCarthy headed Laurent Mendy’s scrappy effort into his own net, only for VAR to spot a handball by the French midfielder inside the box just seconds before.

But Vrancken insisted that the initial strike had been going wide of target before the Irishman’s intervention, therefore should have stood in accordance with this season’s guidelines.

‘The rules are clear about it,’ he said. ‘It’s strange that VAR comes in between and rules wrong. It’s simple.

‘I get the rules, because we had a meeting last week about the laws of the game, and the refs did their explanation.

‘I like to see those things, because you take it with you. But when you don’t see them applied in the game, then I’m thinking this is strange.

‘Of course, there are some situations, grey zones, and then it’s difficult also for the refs.

‘But this was a really clear situation, and they ruled it wrong. It’s also decisive in the game.’

Killie manager Neil McCann was frustrated his team couldn’t see out the victory after leading for so long following Jamie McCart’s early own goal, but couldn’t fault his players.

He said: ‘We probably came away from the footballing aspect of our game tonight, but they showed the different side that they’re completely together and they’re prepared to fight tooth and nail to get something from a game.

‘That shows that they’re punching so hard for this club to get us to where we want to be.

‘I thought we showed a lot of steel and discipline to make sure that we were trying to limit Hearts to any clear-cut opportunities.

‘We had one or two opportunities if we just took the right decision and that’s something that we’ll keep polishing.’