The agony of losing a cup final on penalty kicks after a three-hour Hampden ding-dong with his club’s fiercest rivals was still pulsating round Jack Butland ’s body. But the Rangers goalkeeper still felt the need for one last punch to the guts.
The Ibrox number one forced himself to stand out on the national stadium’s touchline to watch Celtic lift the silverware as the fireworks flew and the green side of the stadium partied. As Philippe Clement and his squad looked on respectfully from the mouth of the tunnel Butland wanted to feel the hurt.
In his own words he wanted to “will it into existence” so the next time in this position he would be on the podium and not the sidelines. A year ago the 31-year-old pocketed his first ever winners’ medal in the same competition. In May he suffered as a late slip allowed Celtic to lift the Scottish Cup. But this one hurt more. Far more.
And he wanted to make sure that suffering he felt watching Callum McGregor lift the silverware can be a driving force towards better and brighter times. He said: “Oh, there’s plenty of pain, all right. Look, we are rivals absolutely. I wanted to see it. Maybe it’s trying to wish it into existence for us and just understand.
“I don’t think it would have made it feel any better if I had walked in prior to that. But it’s just something a few of us wanted to do, wanted to see it, wanted to feel that hurt. Yeah, try and put it away and make sure we win the next one.
“Of course it’s tougher than the Scottish Cup Final. It’s not a game where we’ve been outplayed or outworked. It’s a game that ends cruelly on penalties. They’ll argue they never deserved to lose and we’ll argue exactly the same thing. We didn’t believe that we deserved to lose.
“The effort and the work rate and the quality that the boys showed, so soon after Thursday against Spurs, to go for 120 minutes in the manner that they did, is credit to us as a group and to all the staff. It doesn’t make that an easier feeling, losing. We’ll look back on it in a few days and we’ll be proud of the work that we’ve put in this week, but we haven’t got the results that we wanted and probably deserved either.”
Rangers ’ performance at Hampden, on the back of Thursday’s impressive Euro draw with Spurs, was night and day from the previous derby when Celtic strolled to a 3-0 Parkhead win back in September. It’s just three weeks since a 1-1 draw at home to Dundee United left them 11 points adrift in the title race and piled what seemed like irreversible pressure on Clement.
Yet the Belgian has ridden the storm and managed to his side playing with a tempo, an organisation and a proper goal threat. Butland accepts the start to the season wasn’t near good enough. But the former England international insists recent performances show there is a belief that success can still be secured for the punters this season.
He said: “We want to be successful, we want to push on, we want to succeed. At times this year, we haven’t given the fans what they want to see. I certainly feel in the last month, we’ve given them those performances, we’ve given them the consistency and the effort and the work rate that they expect to see.
“We feel that in the support for us. They were incredible from start to finish today and they willed us on and the boys stood up to it and pushed and pushed. So we do have great confidence and belief in the group.
“I don’t think you are able to come back in a game like that or put a performance in against a top side like Tottenham on Thursday if you don’t have that confidence, you don’t have that belief. We do and we just need to fine tune it now and make sure we get these turned into wins.”
Butland never got near any of Celtic’s five spot kicks in the shoot out. But the big keeper did raise eyebrows when he stepped forward to blast home Rangers’ fifth last Kasper Schmeichel.
Punters weren’t slow to ask why Cyriel Dessers wasn’t in the five designated takers but their goalie was. But asked if he was always going to take one, Butland said: “Yeah, I work on them. I always want to put myself forward and help the team and felt confident in doing so. Ultimately, it’s something that you don’t just put yourself forward if you don’t practice them either.
“I felt confident, I was happy I dispatched it but that’s no silver lining if you like. I took one in a shootout for Stoke against Leeds at Elland Road and scored that one as well. I’ve got enough things to think about in those scenarios than organising (who takes them).
“It could have been anyone that missed, it could have been anyone that scored. Like I said, it’s a cruel way to finish a game. You could have the ecstasy of winning it or it can be as cruel as it feels right now. But I was not part of that process and I was focused on trying to do my job.”