The incredible penalty record of Super Jack Butland

Jack Butland has an incredible record with penalties.

Anyone watching Scottish football will know about it. In the rare event that a penalty is awarded against his team the commentator will quickly provide you with the upto data stats.

There is one stat that you rarely hear about Super Jack.

In two shoot-outs against Celtic he has a 100% record. Nine out of nine. Remarkable.

When Sunday’s match went to penalties the Butland stats were quickly brought up. Almost as quickly as the ball was flying past the former Crystal Palace reserve.

In the Scottish Cup tie Butland only got to face four penalties.

BUTLAND DOES HIS DATA

Before the shoot out started Premier Sports showed the Ibrox ‘keeper in the dug out reading over his penalty notes.

Somehow Super Jack would have all the data on all Celtic players and their penalty habits.

He didn’t have to think too hard to recall what Reo Hatate would do, a week earlier it took the Celtic midfielder three attempts to net against Butland.

In a shoot-out one stop would be enough. There are no rebounds allowed in a penalty shoot-out.

Incredibly Super Jack dived the wrong way for all four Celtic penalties. The law of averages would suggest that you dive the right way for at least one of them. Not Butland.

In contrast Vil Sinisalo went the right way for the two penalties that actually hit the target. He was frustrated that he never managed to save one but James Tavernier and Djeidi Gassama ensured that was meaningless.

Butland had the experience of one previous shoot-out against Celtic to draw on.

At Hampden in December 2024 Kasper Schmeichel saved from Ridvan Yilmaz. Butland failed to save any of Celtic’s five penalties. The hoops lifted the League Cup.

After that defeat Butland hung around the pitch to watch Celtic lift the trophy. He wanted to use the hurt of that experience to inspire him on to future glory.

Fifteen months later he is still waiting to add to his medal collection.