Rangers players felt 'pain' watching Celtic trophy party but Jack Butland reveals why he couldn't walk away

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.

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