SCOTTISH football needs to modernize itself with attractive salaries for full-time referees and the introduction of VAR, according to St Mirren manager Jim Goodwin.

His appeal came on the back of another evening of controversy as Steven Gerrard, the Rangers manager, was sent off after remonstrating with referee John Beaton over a penalty that wasn’t given in their game against Livingston.

"The Rangers analyst will have streamed that particular incident straight to the dugout in a matter of seconds,” said Goodwin. “They will have seen that incident from numerous angles and that's where the frustration will come for Steven Gerrard.

"We need to try and come up with something and I think introducing monitors would be a step in the right direction.

“We can try to take out the refereeing mistakes. Sometimes they might just be in the wrong position at the time of the incident and they can't see the ball because a body is in their way. That's where we can assist them.

"I don't accept mistakes happen and they even themselves out over the season. That's a load of nonsense. It doesn't even out at all and I don't buy that.

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"I think if we can get the correct decision on the day then that's in everyone's best interest, because these points could be the difference between relegation, the top six, winning the league and losing the league.

"We managed to find the money for goal line technology in the semi-final and the final of the League Cup this year, so we seem to be able to get the funding when we need it.

"Making referees full time would be a step in the right direction. It's a very well paid part-time job at the moment. I don't think it would take a great deal more to make them full time.

"Then maybe we don't have people working two jobs and we could really focus on improving the game.

"I'm pretty sure there's a number of people out there who if they thought it was going to be a full-time job at £40,000 a year for the next 15, 20 years then you'd have a whole host of people applying for it."