Kilmarnock boss Derek McInnes feels fans frustrated by lengthy VAR delays

Derek McInnes believes that Scottish football fans are growing increasingly frustrated by stoppages in games due to VAR checks.

The Kilmarnock boss saw his team fall to a 1-0 defeat against Hearts on Saturday, meaning his 700th game in management ended in defeat.

Killie were denied a penalty early in the second half when referee David Dickinson consulted VAR to determine whether Marley Watkins had been fouled inside the box, while his goalkeeper Will Dennis escaped a red card in the first half after clattering Yutaro Oda.

“I think there is a wee bit more of a groundswell from all supporters now,” McInnes said.

“People are really starting to voice their opinion on it, it’s so frustrating. In fairness I think we probably arrived at the right decisions for the majority of the things that were checked – but you don’t have to go round about the houses to get there.

“It’s taking far too long, I think just let the referee, referee it. If my keeper had been sent off, and they were checking for a red card for a flag that was up early enough or should have been up early enough as it was clearly offside.

“The fact they were actually checking that, it would have been so galling – I think there is far too much interference.”

In failing to find the net against Hearts, Kilmarnock extended their run without a goal to three matches.

The Rugby Park boss admits his side have been wasteful in the final third, though is not reaching for the panic button just yet.

Next up for McInnes’ side is a trip to Aberdeen on Wednesday evening.

“We’ll play a lot worse and win this season,” he added.

“I actually thought we were 10 out of 10 for effort, bravery, aggression and there were some good individual performances – we just didn’t get the outcome we all wanted.

“It’s not as if I’m really searching, if the players can give me something similar on Wednesday and just add that little bit more quality, a bit more devilment to get the ball over the line then I think we will be ok.”

Steven Naismith hailed the defensive strength of his Hearts side after they dug deep to defeat Kilmarnock and register a fourth straight league win for the first time in five years.

Lawrence Shankland’s shot somehow was spilled into the net by Dennis to give the Jambos the lead against the run of play after 18 minutes.

Hearts would find themselves on the back-foot for the majority of the match, however, a steely defensive display would clinch the victory that moved them into third in the cinch Premiership table.

“We’ve done that all season, it was one of the areas we spoke about in the summer that needed addressed as it was shocking,” said Naismith.

“Everybody has bought into it, we’ve made some small changes and they have had a big impact.

“It’s not just the defenders, the midfielders positions to pick up second balls, or to make a challenge on the second ball, or our forwards’ positions when they hold it up or link the play – it all blends into one.

There are loads of positives for lots of aspects of our team at the moment, which is good to have going into a busy month.”