Aberdeen v Falkirk ref watch: Ross Hardie’s horrendous afternoon, including Nicky Devlin red – but why he was correct on Leighton Clarkson flashpoint

Aberdeen continued their poor start to the season as they were beaten 1-0 at home to newly-promoted Falkirk 1-0 – with a red card, this time for Nicky Devlin, part of their undoing for the second game in succession.

The referee for the Premiership game was Ross Hardie, who was being assisted on VAR by Nick Walsh.

The big call in the game was to send off Devlin after a VAR review.

The referee initially awarded a caution to Devlin after he appeared to catch Calvin Miller as they both moved for a loose ball.

I thought the red card was extremely harsh, and Devlin is a victim of modern refereeing.

Devlin obviously won the ball, but he did catch Miller high with the follow-through with his boot.

It was not a tackle or challenge, though, as Miller had not quite got there in time, and Devlin was trying to pass the ball back to his goalkeeper, Dimitar Mitov.

Ref Hardie saw the incident in the game and cautioned Devlin.

I think what frustrates me ever since VAR has been introduced is we have constantly been told it won’t re-referee games.

Scottish football’s head of refereeing operations Willie Collum has said on numerous occasions there are decisions on the pitch where VAR should only support the referee.

And this is one occasion where I feel VAR should have backed the referee with his on-field decision.

Hardie had seen the incident in real time, in context, and acknowledged Devlin did catch his man.

For me, it is not a clear and obvious error, and a yellow card would have been sufficient.

It reminded me of a decision last season where Kofi Balmer was sent off for Motherwell v Kilmarnock.

VAR intervened to send him off, with an appeal later seeing the red card rescinded (made even more bizarre by the SFA-backed KMI panel saying the red card should have stood).

I can imagine Aberdeen will potentially appeal the Devlin sending off on the basis it has been successful previously.

Whistler lost control of Aberdeen v Falkirk

Outwith the red card, the referee had a horrendous game.

I have been critical of Ross Hardie before for his inability to control games and rash decision making.

Once again he lost complete control of the game on Sunday.

I actually think he started the game well – the first 25 minutes were good, and he let the game flow.

The red card was the turning point for the referee, though.

After that he was very quick with his cautions, I don’t think it was a type of gamewhich warranted 10 cards (including the red, and booking Dons boss for Jimmy Thelin).

Some of his decisions were absolutely baffling. I think the strangest was when he pulled an Aberdeen attack back for an offside call – just let the play continue, acknowledge your assistant raising the flag and let the game tick over.

Ref Hardie was right on Clarkson

Despite another poor game from the referee, he was correct in his decision to not allow Leighton Clarkson back on to the field, despite the howls of Aberdeen fans.

With the Dons already down to 10, Clarkson went off for treatment of a blood injury.

Clarkson is not allowed to enter the field of play until the referee has checked to ensure his bleeding has stopped.

As much as this is frustrating for the fans seeing their team down to nine men, the referee was spot on.

Finlay Elder was a registered referee for six years and a category 5 official from 2019, with experience in the Highland League, Juniors and Club Academy.

[Source: Press and Journal]