Robinson Hails ‘Common Sense’ After Fraser’s Red Card Rescinded

St Mirren manager Stephen Robinson declared that “common sense prevailed” following the reversal of Marcus Fraser’s red card, which he received during the 2-0 defeat against Dundee United last weekend, by a fast-track tribunal. Fraser, a defender, is now cleared to play against Motherwell this Saturday. He initially received a yellow card for an incident with Louis Moult within the penalty area, but this was subsequently upgraded to a red card after referee Matthew MacDermid reviewed the video replay. St Mirren’s appeal against the decision was later successful, with Robinson commenting: “Common sense prevailed, so credit to the review panel.” Robinson further noted, “There’s a transparency now. Willie [Collum, head of referee operations at the Scottish FA] is open to speaking about it.” He added, “The club spoke to him and obviously we had a meeting, which Brian Kerr [assistant manager] attended. And everyone’s trying to make things better, everybody’s trying to improve things.” Robinson emphasized, “Everyone’s trying to make the whole situation better, VAR, refereeing and the standard of football, everybody’s trying to do the same.” He explained, “Human beings make mistakes and VAR is there to correct those decisions when they do.” “It didn’t on that occasion. It has done on plenty of occasions. If I use the Alex Gogic example against Aberdeen [red downgraded to yellow on the pitch], it worked very well, so not everything’s really poor about it,” he elaborated. Turning to the upcoming match, Motherwell has experienced three consecutive losses, yet Stuart Kettlewell’s team maintains a one-point lead over St Mirren in the Premiership standings. Robinson remarked, “Everyone has a little [poor] spell and we had our spell. They’ve got a good squad, they’ve got a good manager,” He concluded, “It’ll be a tough game. There’s not a lot between the two teams in any of the games that have been played.”