Jim Goodwin brands Toyosi Olusanya a diver as Dundee Utd boss baffled by VAR snub
Jim Goodwin reckons Toyosi Olusanya dived and was left bemused that VAR didn’t intervene to overturn St Mirren’s late penalty at the weekend.
The Dundee United boss was just thankful that justice was done when Olusaya’s spot kick was saved by Jack Walton and they left Paisley with the points. Goodwin has since reviewed the stoppage time spot kick decision and believes Olunsaya clearly dived under minimal or no contact from Kevin Holt.
David Dickinson pointed to the spot but Goodwin was stunned that VAR official Alan Muir didn’t ask the referee to review his on-field call. Goodwin explained: “The angle our analyst had wasn’t as clear-cut as the angle I saw later on Sportscene and I just can’t understand why the referee wasn’t called over to review that. It’s a clear dive, for me. Kevin Holt pulls his leg back and Kevin Holt goes over half-a-second later. I’m so pleased that the final outcome of the game wasn’t swung on that type of decision.
“St Mirren had plenty of chances during the game and could have scored a legitimate goal, but a poor decision in the VAR room could have cost us. Because the referee wasn’t given the instruction to come and view the incident at the monitor, I thought the decision must have been obvious. I assumed Kevin must have tripped him up. But it was simulation, as far as I’m concerned, and I’m relieved justice prevailed in the end with Jack making a good save.
The referee has to be called to the monitor to make such a big call, not the guy in the VAR room. It was plain to see what happened on the replay and everyone I’ve spoken to has been baffled that a penalty was awarded.” Goodwin reckons more would have been made of the incident if it had cost his third place side valuable points.
The United boss added: We need to do a lot better in those situations, as a country because that could have been very costly; a massive two points dropped. Not much has been made of it because we won the game but, had that cost us points, we would have been very upset.”
