Kevin Thelwell airs Rangers grievances with 'dangerous precedent' broadside over Celtic incident

Trusty was booked by referee Nick Walsh after catching Rangers goalkeeper Jack Butland in the head with his boot after the ball had been gathered in his opponent's hands near the end of the first half of the Hampden encounter on November 2. VAR official Steven McLean reviewed the incident but did not feel it warranted being upgraded to a red.

Celtic were leading 1-0 at the time against a Rangers side who had been earlier reduced to 10 men when Thelo Aasgaard was sent off for a dangerous tackle on Anthony Ralston.

Rangers equalised in the second half to force extra-time but Celtic made the extra man count in the additional 30 minutes to claim a 3-1 victory that set up a final against St Mirren next month.

The Ibrox club met with the SFA afterwards to seek an explanation for the major decisions in the match, including the Trusty incident, but were left "unsatisfied" with the reasoning given.

Speaking on the VAR Review Show, broadcast on Friday, Collum offered justification for why a red card wasn’t given.

"We can support the yellow card here in terms of the criteria in the laws of the game," he said. "It's important to say that there's a subjective element to this decision and we fully respect people's opinions if they think that's a red card. But here, the on-field communication is very clear from the referee.

"The referee comes to the conclusion that this is a reckless action, rather than anything more serious. The VAR look at the images, and they don't see anything other than that."

Collum then clarified that the incident was judged against the criteria for violent conduct.

"We don't think this is a challenge for the ball," he continued. "This falls under violent conduct. What the referee and the VAR team then have to consider: excessive force, brutality.

"The referee comes to the conclusion that there's not enough force and not enough brutality for him, and the contact is negligible. So, that's why a yellow card is reached for reckless."

However, Rangers have not been placated with an aggrieved Thelwell preparing to present a dossier of evidence to the SFA regarding perceived refereeing inconsistencies.

"It’s clear that everybody associated with Rangers Football Club is very, very frustrated with that fixture in particular," Thelwell told Rangers TV in an interview that will be broadcast on Saturday morning.

"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.

"Whilst we agreed with some of the points that were made, we still fundamentally disagree with some of the points that were made, in particular the Auston Trusty incident.

“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.”