Kevin Thelwell believes 'a dangerous precedent' has been set after the Scottish FA defended Auston Trusty's flashpoint challenge on Jack Butland at Hampden.
The American was booked for a moment of madness that saw him kick Butland in the head during the first half of the Premier Sports Cup semi-final earlier this month. Danny Rohl's side - reduced to ten men after Thelo Aasgaard's dismissal - were beaten in extra-time.
The Rangers Review later revealed that Ibrox chiefs would take the case to head of refereeing Willie Collum to demand answers over the incident. Those talks have failed to satisfy Rangers, though, and Collum stated whistler Nick Walsh believed the incident was a 'reckless action, rather than anything more serious' on the Sky Sports VAR show on Friday.
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That explanation has further infuriated Rangers and their supporters. And sporting director Thelwell has revealed the club will now go back to Hampden after being left bemused by the explanations given in recent weeks.
"It’s clear that everybody associated with Rangers Football Club is very, very frustrated with that fixture [the Premier Sports Cup semi-final] in particular," Thelwell told RangersTV in an exclusive interview that will be aired in full on Saturday.
"I think it's well known that we were disappointed with some of the consistency of the refereeing on that day, and we've had some strong conversations with the SFA about some of those inconsistencies and some of those decisions.
"Following that meeting, I think it's probably also clear to say that, whilst we agreed with some of the points that were made during the conversations, we still fundamentally disagree with some of the points that were made, in particular the Auston Trusty incident.
🆕 "We can support the yellow card here in terms of the criteria in the laws of the game."
Watch Scottish Football VAR Review from 6pm on @SkyFootball as Willie Collum discusses several incidents, including the clash between Celtic's Auston Trusty and Rangers' Jack Butland 📺 pic.twitter.com/RnTW9PbbMs— Sky Sports Scotland (@ScotlandSky) November 14, 2025
“It's clear from our side that is a red card. I think we all feel like it's a dangerous precedent to be saying that striking somebody on the head is nothing short of a red card. So, from our perspective, we want to have another conversation with the SFA.
“We’ve been doing some analysis of our own over a much wider period and want to talk to them again about some of that detail for one reason, and one reason only, and that is, we want greater consistency.
“We want a greater quality and a greater standard of refereeing, and we want the focus to be on the football and not on the decisions. So that's a conversation to be had with the SFA in due course, once we've had a chance to present them with some more analysis.”
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