Willie Collum Verdict Keeps Sam Nicholson's Celtic Penalty Claim Alive
Willie Collum’s latest VAR spotlight centres on Sam Nicholson, who said the Celtic penalty at Fir Park should never have stood because the ball did not strike his hand. The Motherwell winger described the award as one of the season’s biggest flashpoints after a late review in the penultimate Scottish Premiership game. He said the decision left him questioning how a challenge deep into stoppage time turned into a spot-kick.
Fir Park Challenge
Nicholson challenged Auston Trusty for a header deep into stoppage time in Motherwell’s penultimate league game of the campaign. Referee John Beaton then went to the pitch-side review before awarding Celtic a penalty.
That sequence sits at the centre of Nicholson’s dispute. He said, “I can categorically say, it never hit my hand.” He repeated the point later, saying, “It categorically did not hit my hand.”
His first read was different from the final call. Nicholson said he thought Motherwell had won a free kick because he jumped up first, and he said the referee initially told him he was checking for a handball. “When the ref said at first he was checking for a handball, I was like, 'Oh, right, I never handballed it, so it’s fine,'” he said.
What Nicholson Saw
After the game, Nicholson spoke to Andy Halliday and was told, “They’re saying that it hit your hand.” His reply was blunt: “No it never!” He later added, “Did it?” before reaching his own view that, “It literally couldn’t have.”
He also said Celtic players came over and reacted to the call, telling him, “That’s crazy.” Nicholson answered, “Oh, thanks!” and later described his reaction to the referee’s response by saying, “This is mental.”
The winger’s defence rested on what he saw in real time and what he believes the still images suggest. “The weird thing is, still images can make it look like that, but football isn’t played in still images,” he said. His point was simple: the camera angle looked incriminating, but he says the contact never happened.
Penultimate Premiership Flashpoint
The incident came in the penultimate game of the Scottish Premiership campaign, which is why the call drew so much attention beyond Fir Park. Nicholson said, “It’s not great obviously to be in the middle of it all. I suppose stuff like that can come with the job. I obviously have my views on it.”
For Motherwell, the issue is not just the penalty itself but how a late VAR review turned a single aerial challenge into the decisive moment in the match. Nicholson’s account leaves the row where it started: with one player insisting the ball never touched his hand and another official review deciding otherwise.
