Liam Henderson red card: Willie Collum gives 'without a doubt' verdict reviewing Falkirk ace's sending off
Willie Collum says Falkirk ace Liam Henderson’s sending off against Dundee United was ‘without a doubt’ a red card.
Falkirk centre-back Liam Henderson was correctly sent off against Dundee United following VAR intervention, according to the Scottish FA’s head of refereeing Willie Collum.
The former whistler told presenter Gordon Duncan on the latest VAR Review programme that Henderson’s cynical trip on Ryan Watters was ‘clear’ and ‘without a doubt’ a red card for denial of a goalscoring opportunity (DOGSO) despite the incident taking place on the halfway line with Hearts loanee Lewis Neilson in a decent position to get back and challenge the Terrors’ forward.
Match referee Ryan Lee originally gave Henderson a yellow card, stating at the time to the VAR team that he felt there was a “covering defender” and that the tackle was “stopping a promising attack”. He went on to say that he “didn’t see it as an obvious goalscoring opportunity”. VAR lead Steven McLean and assistant VAR Greg Aitken then asked Lee to come to the monitor after concluding from their subsequent check that the foul merited a DOGSO red card.
Chief referee Collum explained why the VAR team and the on-field whistler has came to the right decision, saying that he 100 per cent backed the call despite initially also thinking that a yellow card would suffice. He told Duncan that he was watching the Falkirk v Dundee United match when the incident occurred.
Willie Collum doubles down on Falkirk red card
“Distance from goal is really important,” he said. “I was watching the game from the VAR (studio) and I immediately thought yellow card from the main camera angle. Here’s the key moment for us (high-behind angle showing Henderson’s tripping Watters). Imagine Liam Henderson is not there. This is a clear and obvious goalscoring opportunity. Look at the distance the Falkirk defender has to make up, look at the speed the Dundee United forward is travelling at, the direction of the ball being so centre and on the ground, this is clear for us without a doubt. Covering defender is too far away.”
Collum continued: “Also for consistency purposes, there would be a lack of understanding if this was felt to be a yellow card but Auston Trusty’s foul against Hearts was a red card.”
Falkirk manager John McGlynn admitted this week that the Bairns felt an appeal was a “complete and utter waste of time” due to the precedent set by Trusty’s red card for Celtic at Tynecastle. They’ll now have Henderson missing for this weekend’s Scottish Premiership trip to the top-of-the-table Jambos.
"We felt that, based on the Trusty one, it would be a complete and utter waste of time,” McGlynn said. “It’s probably set a standard that they’ll go with now, I would suggest. The on-field decision would probably have been enough in all three of these situations, the Celtic, our one and then the one with Motherwell. I think no one would have complained too much, but because they’ve been given, there’s always two or three players who’ll get into the referee’s ear with regards to that, because obviously they can understand it’s going to be influential if a player gets sent off."
Scotland hero and Aston Villa star John McGlynn, brother of Falkirk coach Stephen McGinn, was one of many who took to social media to voice their opinion on why the red card call was wrong. He said on X when discussing VAR: “Scottish VAR is a mess. That was a shocker as well (Henderson’s red card).