The media plays its last card as Collum confirms Celtic Fir Park penalty.

Tonight, The Herald is running what is basically a character reference for Sam Nicholson, the Motherwell player at the centre of the handball decision at Fir Park.

This is the player whose hand the ball struck on the night Celtic won at Motherwell, a result which sent us into the final game of the season needing a victory to win the title. The piece presents Nicholson as a good, honest family man who would not tell a lie. Not about cutting down cherry trees. Not about handling the ball. Not about anything.

And fine. I am not here to say Sam Nicholson is a bad man.

That is not the point.

The point is that his character does not decide whether the ball hit his hand. The footage does that. The VAR audio does that. Willie Collum going on Sky and explaining what happened does that.

The Herald is not really litigating the handball here. It is offering a character reference.

The timing may be coincidence. But if it is, it is a remarkably convenient one. The article lands on the same night, shortly before Willie Collum is due to go on Sky and tell the whole world what we already know: that the officials believed the ball came off Nicholson’s hand, that the VAR officials were not in serious doubt, and that when John Beaton watched it back, he was not in serious doubt either.

That matters. But because the media has made its mind up on this, and it is not going to matter what the VAR audio says. It is not going to matter what Collum says. It is not going to matter what the camera angles show. It is not going to matter what the still images show.

These people already have their opinion, and they are not going to change it for anyone.

Facts will not matter. Logic will not matter. The multiple camera angles which appear to show the ball striking the hand will not matter. The still pictures will not matter. The audio will not matter. The explanation will not matter.

The story has already been written in their heads.

Celtic got away with one. Hearts were robbed.

Scottish football was cheated.

That is where they want this to sit. The fact The Herald is publishing Nicholson’s story tonight, getting his version out before Collum’s explanation gets the wider platform, tells you the level on which parts of this debate are now operating. They are desperate to turn this into the greatest controversial decision of all time.

They are desperate to frame it as the moment that cost Hearts the league, although how many times we have had to shoot that particular claim down, I do not know.

It is getting old.

I knew something would break in certain people if Celtic won the title this year. The race was tight. It was hotly contested right up until the last day. Some in the media had convinced themselves of the Hearts fairy tale. They locked themselves into that narrative, and they were not going to quit it easily.

But football does not run on fairy tales. Plucky clubs get to cup finals and get skelped in them. Sides do well over a season and falter at the end. Football does not respect the happy ending just because journalists fancy writing one.

Football is ruthless. Football is meritocratic. And Celtic won.

I understand that the end of the Hearts dream run came as a shock to some people. I understand they are not happy about it. I understand they are smarting over what they feel was a great historic moment slipping away.

But that does not make it an injustice.

No amount of media spin will make it an injustice either.

Some people have asked me why Nicholson would lie about this. What would his motivation be? He was a Motherwell player, and as I have already pointed out several times, Motherwell had no real skin in the title race.

But that misses two crucial points. The first is obvious: Nicholson was the player penalised.

That alone gives him a reason to see the incident differently. Nobody expects the player whose handball has just led to a decisive late penalty to walk off the pitch saying, “Aye, fair enough, the officials got me there.”

He was aggrieved on the night because he was directly involved. The second point is the one a lot of people seem very keen to skate past.

Sam Nicholson is a Hearts supporter. He grew up supporting Hearts. Hearts were his first professional club. That is not a secret. It is not some dark revelation dug out from a locked archive. It is public knowledge.

So, when people say, “he has no reason to lie,” they are ignoring the fact that he has two very obvious reasons to be emotionally invested in his version of events. One as the Motherwell player penalised. One as a Hearts fan who knows what that decision meant in the title race.

That does not mean he is lying. Let me be clear about that.

It means he is not a neutral observer. It means his memory and interpretation are not detached from the consequences of the incident. It means the media presenting him as if he were some disinterested witness is ridiculous.

By this stage, Nicholson may genuinely believe the ball did not hit his hand. That is entirely possible. Memory is not a recording. It is a reconstruction. When grievance, embarrassment and tribal loyalty all pull in the same direction, motivated memory distortion can do the rest.

He could probably sit in front of a lie detector now and pass.

That does not mean the ball did not hit his hand. It means human beings are very good at convincing themselves of the version of events they need to be true.

That is why the evidence matters. Not the character witness. Not the family-man profile. Not the emotional retelling. The evidence.

Sam Nicholson can believe whatever he likes. But he was the Motherwell player penalised, so he was aggrieved on the night. He is also a Hearts supporter, so the grievance naturally runs wider than one decision in one game.

But the ball hit his hand. That is only seriously disputed by people with an emotional or tribal need to dispute it.

The real debate is whether VAR should have intervened and whether the handball threshold was met. Those are different arguments, and the people still screaming about this keep blending them together because the clean version does not help them.

If you want to argue that VAR should not have got involved, fine. Make that argument. If you want to argue about the interpretation of the handball law, fine. Make that argument too.

But stop pretending the contact itself is some great mystery. It is not.

The reason they keep running from one argument to another is that none of them stand up for very long on their own. First it was “the ball never hit his hand.” Then it was “the angle is inconclusive.” Then it was “it could not have travelled that far.” Then it was “VAR should not have intervened.” Then it was “not every handball is a penalty.” Finally, tonight, on the VAR should we hit rock bottom; “Okay, the ball hits the hand, the arm is raised, VAR had to intervene cause the ref missed it … but did Trusty jumping move the arm?”

God almighty. These people are ridiculous. Round and round they go. That is not analysis. That is grievance looking for a place to land. Thankfully, Collum came prepared, as well prepared as I’ve ever heard him, and he batted away every concern.

And that is why this Nicholson interview matters. Not because it settles the issue, but because it shows us what the media is trying to do. They are trying to turn the player’s sincerity into evidence. They are trying to make this about whether Sam Nicholson is a decent person rather than whether the ball hit his hand.

Those are not the same thing. Good people can be wrong. Honest people can misremember. Aggrieved players can sincerely believe they were wronged. Supporters can see what they need to see.

None of that changes the footage. None of that changes the VAR audio. None of that changes the fact that Hearts still went to Celtic Park needing a draw and failed to get it. That is the part they keep trying to bury under all this noise.

Hearts still had the title in their own hands on the final day. They came to Celtic Park needing a draw. Not a miracle. Not a five-goal win. Not divine intervention from the heavens above Tynecastle. A draw.

They failed. That is not Sam Nicholson’s fault. It is not Willie Collum’s fault. It is not John Beaton’s fault. It is not VAR’s fault. It is not Celtic’s fault. It is Hearts’ failure.

The media can run as many character pieces as it likes. It can canonise Nicholson. It can frame him as the last honest man in Scotland. It can try to turn this handball into the Zapruder film of Scottish football.

But the truth remains stubborn. The ball hit his hand. The officials judged the threshold was met. Celtic scored the penalty. Hearts still had their chance.

And Celtic won the league.

That is the story they cannot rewrite, no matter how hard they try.

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