Celtic defender Liam Scales thought extra-time foul on Vaclav Cerny was ‘outside the box’

Celtic defender Liam Scales says he thought the referee reached the right decision by awarding a free-kick for his extra-time foul on Vaclav Cerny.

The Republic of Ireland international was shown a yellow card by John Beaton for the tackle that Rangers believe should have been a penalty.

Scales tugged on the Czech International jersey at the edge of the area as the Ibrox side pushed for a goal in the first-half of extra-time at Hampden.

He said there were no complaints from any Rangers players and was sure the ref would have been notified if it was inside.

The game ended 3-3 and was decided on a penalty shootout which Celtic won 5-4 to lift the trophy on Sunday.

After the game Philippe Clement hit out at the decision not to award a spot-kick to Cerny and insisted VAR officials should have intervened.

STV News revealed on Monday that new Rangers chief executive Patrick Stewart spoke to the Scottish FA seeking an explanation into the incident.

But speaking after the match, Scales said: I thought it was outside the box. I haven’t watched it back, so I can’t really tell you.

“At the time, I thought it was outside and there were no complaints at the time. We just got on with the game. I’m sure they looked at it upstairs.”

He continued: “It was a mad game.

“Both sides were on the front foot for a lot of it. It was great to come out on top.

“It was the first one available to us this season. To go out and win a penalty shootout is always a little bit sweeter.

“I think all season we’ve been sending a message that we’re relentless and we’re playing good football this season.

“I think you might not have seen much good football, but to still get the win, it showed another side of us that we can win ugly sometimes.

“I think these games, these cup finals, they’re always close. They’re always intense and it’s hard to control them because there’s a lot of emotion. There’s a lot of nerves all over the park from both sides.

“This is the one we missed last season and we got the other two, so it sets us up nicely.

“We’re still focused on a game at the time, but I think this was massive for us to get this one out of the way. We’re happy to have done that.”

On the decision not to award a penalty for the foul, Clement said: “I don’t know if you saw the images back but my phone is overloaded with the penalty situation with Cerny.

“I have had hundreds of messages about that. It’s also a decisive moment in the game.

“Of course [Beaton] cannot see that in the moment but he didn’t get the communication from the VAR to come to watch the screen.

“It was for me a really weird situation, that there’s no look in this kind of game.”