Say what you like about VAR, but without it here you simply do not get to see Robbie Neilson celebrating a 96th minute equaliser in the centre circle.

Setting the Hearts manager off on a joyous charge across the Tynecastle pitch was probably not what the SFA had in mind when it dropped our new toy like a bomb into Scottish football.

But what's indisputable about the much-maligned technology is its ability to stir up every possible emotion; emotion that spilled over in quite bonkers fashion as Neilson's 10 men kept their quest for third ticking over in salvaging an unlikely draw against Livingston.

Stephen Kelly's well-taken goal had set Livi on course for a first win at Tynecastle in no fewer than 20 years, one that looked inevitable when Kye Rowles was sent off and a penalty awarded to the visitors.

But Craig Gordon repelled Sean Kelly from the spot and that galvanising moment, topped up generously by Tynecastle's VAR-induced fury, teed up seven minutes of stoppage time and that was enough for Josh Ginnelly to smash home a dramatic equaliser.

"It was a shambles, wasn't it?" Neilson said upon his return from no man's land. "Hopefully, we've got a period now to iron this out a bit. We don't need three or four minutes for every decision, it needs to be quicker.

"You can make a decision in three seconds but we're stopping the game for everything. It needs to get better because it's going to kill football.

"I asked the fourth official about the red card and he didn't know, that's the worry. If the officials don't even know, what chance have you got? It's killing the game at the moment."

Believe it or not, this all erupted after a decidedly dull first-half.

Lawrence Shankland fired a left-footed effort skyward from Alex Cochrane's cutback but the opening exchanges otherwise crept past quietly.

Ginnelly did find the target moments later, but was unable to loft the ball over keeper Ivan Konovalov, in for the injured Shamal George.

To watch David Martindale on the touchline is an event itself but as half-time arrived, he won't have been too displeased - not least considering one of the few cheers around a muted Tynecastle was in response to a belated switching on of the floodlights.

Livingston even finished the half the stronger and Hearts needed Ginnelly to clear Jack Fitzwater's header off the line to keep themselves level.

It was a warning the home side did not heed, allowing Kelly to fashion half a yard and strike brilliantly in off the post after fine work down the right from Andrew Shinnie.

Going down to 10 men wasn't in Hearts' script either, but Rowles was then ordered down the tunnel after VAR spotted a pull on Joel Nouble as he wound up to shoot from close range.

The other Kelly stepped up against Gordon but the veteran keeper's flailing leg kept an increasingly ridiculous game of football alive.

It was VAR's time to shine again as the clock ticked down, deciding against calling Craig Napier to the monitor after a heavy challenge from Cochrane on Nicky Devlin.

“Why the referee hasn't been called over to the monitor on a couple of occasions I don’t know," Martindale said afterwards. “The challenge on Nicky from Cochrane, how he doesn’t get asked to look at it on the monitor I’ll never know.

“I am actually getting to the stage where I don’t know how the game is being refereed.

“If it’s not our foul then surely it’s our throw because you assume he got the ball. We never got the throw. So what happened? For me that was wrong today.”

The Jambos somehow failed to draw level when Shankland was afforded two bites at a stoppage time equaliser and that looked to be that until Ginnelly picked up a loose ball in the box to send Tynecastle into raptures and his manager galloping across the turf.

"It was pure frustration about what a shambles of a day it had become," Neilson explained.

With VAR taking centre stage once again, you get the impression it won't be the last time he says that.

 

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