Clement and Stewart have another week’s breathing space, thanks to a little help from their friends.

Everyone knows by now that the Ibrox club picked up three points away at Tynecastle yesterday. It was a thoroughly wretched performance from them—Hearts did everything but bury them and provide a marker for Philippe Clement’s Scottish football grave. Yet, somehow, the result ended up 3-1 in his favour.

Not that it’s going to do him much good.

Their season was effectively over before the match even kicked off, thanks to last week’s astonishing Scottish Cup exit at home to Queen’s Park. That result reduced every remaining domestic fixture to the status of a friendly. Nevertheless, there was a lot of excitement in the press room when Clement faced the media and told them how impressed he was with the fight his team had shown.

Most Ibrox fans online were left wondering what the point of showing up and fighting even was, given that the league has already been surrendered, the League Cup is in Celtic’s hands, and last week’s Scottish Cup exit has left them with no domestic silverware to play for. Still, the manager was buoyed by his team’s display. But he owed the victory to a small group in particular.

Because when you look at how the game played out, they owe their win entirely to the officials. The two own goals from Jamie McCart were one thing, but the crucial decision that led to their second goal—the one scored by Cerny—was all down to the generosity of John Beaton and the team in the VAR room.

Less than a minute passed between Hearts being denied a stonewall penalty at one end and the ball hitting the back of the net at the other.

In the days to come, expect Collum or someone else at the SFA to offer an explanation for that decision. They needn’t waste their time—or ours—on something as pitiful as an excuse, because we all know exactly what happened.

It’s what always happens. When the Ibrox club is in desperate need, they always get a little help from their friends.

Indeed, had James Tavernier not bottled it in the crucial moment against Queen’s Park, a similarly fortuitous refereeing decision might have seen them scrape through that game undeservedly as well.

The chances of Hearts being awarded a penalty at a point where they were totally dominant yesterday, with the score at 1-1 and the Ibrox manager already looking down into his open grave, were nil. It was never going to happen.

In some ways, it seems pointless to be propping Clement up.

But the simple fact is that the Ibrox board appears willing to tolerate him for a little while longer. And as such, anything that puts them under undue pressure is not what the Brotherhood wants. These people were always going to be spared a backs-to-the-wall crisis if it could be avoided, and a defeat yesterday would have made the club itself—not just the manager—the story.

In some ways, they still are the story. Everyone knows Clement should be gone by now, but this result gives them just enough cover. It buys them a little bit of breathing space, and they’ll use it to the fullest. So will he. Already, you have some websites talking about how the cup game is behind them. One by one, people are falling into line.

A defeat yesterday would have made that impossible.

Nothing will change, even if Collum is forced to admit that a penalty should have been given. Nothing will change as long as people like John Beaton continue to get these matches. In some ways, you can’t entirely blame him for yesterday.

He made the call in the moment, and he got it badly wrong. But the real issue was in the VAR room—they didn’t even bother to call him over to review it, even though it was clearly a penalty. The fact that it led to a goal at the other end is precisely why it should have been scrutinised in detail.

The Hearts manager was pretty measured after the match, saying he hadn’t had a chance to review the incident. I think he’ll be absolutely appalled when he sees it, because it’s clear his team was denied a real chance to win the game.

And at this stage of the season, where every point is crucial—if you’re still fighting for something, that is—it all adds up.

The truth is that although Beaton isn’t solely to blame for yesterday’s fiasco—the VAR team didn’t even give him a decision to make—it’s no surprise that he’s at the centre of yet another pro-Ibrox controversy.

He’s involved in far too many of these incidents for it to be put down to simple incompetence. If he were merely a bad referee, someone would have taken him out of the frame for these high-profile matches long ago.

We all know what Beaton is. It’s an accepted fact that no one even bothers to deny anymore. Celtic has already made its position on him abundantly clear through the words of our manager.

It’s high time other clubs in this league did the same, because until they do, this guy is just going to keep getting these games. And that’s going to keep costing other teams points—just as it did yesterday at Tynecastle.

Photo by Mark Scates/SNS Group via Getty Images

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