Jack Butland reveals to Rangers dressing room the mitigating reason behind Man Utd calamity as key man misses it

Jack Butland got his punch all wrong to gift Manchester United a lead against Rangers. But it was the body blow of Bruno Fernandes’ late winner at Old Trafford that left skipper James Tavernier devastated at the end.

Philippe Clement’s side thought they’d hauled themselves off the canvas to salvage a vital Europa League point last night when Cyriel Dessers hit a stunning goal to make it 1-1. But in Fergie time, United’s captain Fernandes scored a volley to sicken Gers and their travelling support.

Earlier, Butland’s calamitous own goal had put the home side in front. But when Dessers levelled late on, Tavernier felt it was a golden opportunity for them to take a memorable result back to Glasgow. And at full-time, he couldn’t help but think it was a chance passed up as Ruben Amorim’s under-pressure side eventually secured a much-needed win. Tavernier refused to put any blame on Butland for the howler on his comeback from injury against his former club.

Instead, he focused on Rangers’ performance with a depleted squad - and the fact they threw away a point at the death. The right-back, who was forced to play at centre-back in the second half due to Leon Balogun’s injury, said: “It’s definitely one that got away with how late they scored the winner.

“We’re so disappointed – we gave ourselves a great chance to get back into the game, then gave away a goal that we could have done a lot better with. We got the goal from Cyriel but the disappointment is that we didn’t hold on. To go from the high of equalising to the low of losing it so soon after? That’s football, isn’t it?

“We’re coming in at full-time with a draw and a point, but in a split-second we maybe lost concentration and concede. But that’s the level we’re at, we’re