Jack Butland breaks silence on Auston Trusty no red card after 'clumsy' foul

Jack Butland says the decision not to send off a Celtic defender after his “clumsy” foul on him during the League Cup semi-final risks setting a precedent.

Hoops centre-back Auston Trusty caught the Rangers goalkeeper in the head with a trailing foot at the end of the first half at Hampden Park on Sunday.

Referee Nick Walsh booked the American for the incident, but Rangers, who had already been reduced to ten men, believe he should have been shown a red card.

The Ibrox club asked the SFA for clarification on the decision; however, in a statement released on Monday, they revealed they weren’t satisfied with the explanation given.

The Rangers stopper says the call not to award a red card risks setting a precedent for decisions of that nature.

Butland said: “At the time, I thought it was late. Was there a massive amount of malice involved? Not necessarily.

“As a keeper, when you put yourself in that position to be brave and try to intercept a ball, you would like to think you’re protected from things like that.

“Seeing it afterwards, it was later than I thought in real time. It’s a difficult one to accept.

“Conversations have been had since, it’s difficult to accept that’s perhaps a precedent that is going to continue if that’s a similar situation against any team, regardless of who it is.

“There’s disappointment that between all the staff that day from a refereeing side, that’s the result that it came to.

“As a keeper, we can use our hands and be more physical, but when you’re entitled to go for the ball at a player’s feet, it can be a by-product getting hit, it’s part and parcel of the game.

“Late ones and clumsy ones like that, you would like to feel it would have been done a bit differently.

“I think the club will make a statement. I think there will be more discussions for some more answers.”

Butland was speaking to promote the Big Ibrox Sleep Out, hosted by the Rangers Charity Foundation and 32Red, which calls on fans to show their support for tackling homelessness in Glasgow.