Dermot Gallagher heaped praise on Steven Kirkland for his eagle-eyed spot of Ryan Strain’s handball.Kirkland’s intervention prompted VAR to refer Nick Walsh to the monitor before awarding Rangers the penalty that led to their breakthrough in the 3-0 win over St Mirren in Paisley.
The former whistler discussed the incident on Sky Sports ref watch and admitted it was “amazing” that Kirkland spotted the Australian’s deliberate handball which denied Abdallah Sima a clear goalscoring opportunity and resulted in a red card as well as a spot kick, after on-field referee Walsh had watched it again.
James Tavernier converted the spot-kick.Gallagher admitted he had even struggled to spot the offence after watching replays of the incident and said: “My biggest surprise is, seriously, how well it was picked up.
When I saw the clip earlier today I said ‘what’s the problem’ and they showed me three or four times and said ‘well it’s handball’. "So for the VAR to pick that up in normal play and tell the referee to stop and go and look at the screen is amazing.
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