Interesting discussion on yesterday's Magpie Circle on VAR

Stall seems a bit conflicted. No worries, a lot of people are.

It was interesting to hear him say that he would absolutely behave differently, as a striker, if it was a VAR game - like going down when he knew his shirt was being pulled.

Well, VAR was as good as gold in our final, it didn't intrude at all. And fans could still celebrate the goals (look at the vlogs), maybe Stall had to be more tentative as a commentator. But more than that I'm sure that that changed player behaviour due to VAR helped us win.

Exhibit A - Ness' header. There's no way they would've let him do that if it was a normal game at the Peninsula or Meadow Lane. He would have been wrestled down to the ground in a way that made it look like a foul on the defender. And that's what the usual bog-standard L2 ref would've given.

I was in favour of VAR at the start but turned against it since, mainly because of the delays. But our final makes you think. VAR and the big pitch both played a part in ensuring the better team won.

I think VAR has a place in football, and I wasn't against it being used in the final to be honest. The idea of not getting promoted because of a missed/wrong call would've been hard to accept.

I agree I do think the VAR would've made certain players think twice about grabbing and pulling, it's easier to hide when it's just the 3 (and 4th) officials. But having camera's covering all angles means you are less likely to get away with the s'housery element that is over prevalent in League 2. I agree it was definitely more of an aid to us than Salford.

That said, would I want to see it for every match played? If it was seemingly used (sparingly) like it was in the PO Final I'd be more swayed to it. But the current Premier League use would be a big no. The way every goal or action is now checked to the n^th degree, it’s like they are trying to find faults when in theory if there’s a clear mistake it will be easy to spot! If you have to draw a line to see if someone is offside, it’s not clear and obvious. If you have to watch a potential penalty for minutes with several different angles, it’s not clear and obvious.

Let the officials officiate, if the VAR spots something they think is an obvious mistake only then should it get involved. This was how it felt VAR was used in our final and it worked well.

VAR should be scrapped & only goal line technology should be used with it. VAR is killing the game. It's killing the spontaneity of Football.

VAR really should have been used across all of the playoffs, I would say this even if our outcome had changed. I think all of the EFL should have VAR, but the rules and use of it needs to be better implemented. Checks shouldn't take a long time; they should be effective and prompt.

The issue is the referee has to check for his thoughts, despite him having relayed the findings before hand prior to him checking the big screen.

It could massive reduce stupid decisions such as Nick Tsaroulla being carded for diving when he was fouled, whilst ensuring elbows and pushing is limited because players won't try it if they know they'll get caught. A professional league shouldn't be treated any different, and technology shouldn't be reserved for the highest league.

I get the negatives, it can be poorly handled but I think used right it would be of huge benefit.

There could be a resource issue and other practical reasons why it's not extended to all 4 leagues.

Maybe they do this already, but I'm not aware, but massive improvements could be made with points of emphasis for refereeing - focussed on the so-called 'dark arts', persistent fouling, time-wasting etc.

I hope L1 next season gives us fewer referees that side with spoiling teams and enable them to cheat their way to points.

VAR is a double edged sword. It’s great when it gives your team a handball in the box that the referee missed or the offside that rules out an opponent’s goal. When it works the other way it’s not so great. Well in recent times we have had two promotions without it, so not having it can’t be all bad. We’ll just have to wait till we’re in the premier league to find out.

VAR in the EFL. It would be too expensive for the lower league clubs to implement it. VAR also needs multi cameras from different angles so that would cause issues for spectators & would could also reduce the capacity of ML

When VAR was implemented I was very hopeful that it would cut out mistakes and make the game better, but it has made things worse. The spontinaity has gone.

Fans cannot celebrate a goal like they used to. You have to wait up to five minutes for a decision. VAR appears to favour the big clubs to the detriment of everyone else.

Like I said previously, VAR for goal line decisions only. Scrap VAR for everything else.