Thanks to a 3-1 home win against Ross County, Hibernian moved one position up and got out of the relegation realm. The victory thanks to goals from Dwight Gayle, Eli Youan and Josh Campbell moved Hibs to the eighth position on the Scottish Premiership log, overtaking city rivals Hearts, who went bottom of the table after a 1-0 loss to Kilmarnock.
In the meantime, the Scottish football community will be discussing a decisive penalty in the match between Celtic and Rangers in the final of the Scottish League Cup. Ex-referee Bobby Madden criticised VAR once more when they did not allow Rangers a penalty despite Celtic’s Liam Scales being deemed to have fouled Vaclav Cerny in the box.
Madden qualified the decision as “100 per cent a penalty kick” and wondered why VAR did not come to the party to overturn the mistake. ‘This is holding within the penalty area clearly and I am surprised this has not been picked up by VAR,’ said Madden.
Elsewhere, Premier League bottom dwellers Southampton have mutually terminated contracts with their manager Russell Martin after a loss to Tottenham Hotspur 5-0. Martin, who led Saints to the Championship play-off final last season, has not been able to handle the rigor of the Premier League where Southampton has lost as many as 13 of their 16 matches. Former England Under-19 coach Simon Rusk will be in charge of the team in the interim as the club seeks to look for a permanent solution.