Philippe Clement plans to appeal stoppage-time red card for Mohamed Diomande

Philippe Clement will appeal the controversial stoppage-time red card referee Nick Walsh handed Mohamed Diomande during Rangers’ 3-1 William Hill Premiership win over Dundee United.

The Gers midfielder levelled Sam Dalby’s 19th-minute opener for the home side at Tannadice before Robin Propper’s deflected strike early in the second half and a late counter from striker Cyriel Dessers cut Celtic’s lead at the top of the table to 10 points, with the Hoops having a game in hand.

However, in the fifth minute of added time Diomande, who was suspended for the 2-1 Europa League defeat by Manchester United on Thursday night, threw a hand at United defender Kevin Holt who had pushed him and Walsh flashed a red card and stuck with his decision after VAR Don Robertson sent him to have a look on his pitchside monitor.

Gers boss Clement said: “I totally don’t understand the red card. I think the VAR also didn’t understand the red card, otherwise they don’t ask the referee to go to watch the screen.

“Dio gets pushed away, so there’s violent contact towards him in the push, and he falls back, and he has a small reaction with his hands, not touching anybody.

“So if you see that back, I think it’s clear. The maximum is a yellow card for the two players.

“I see so many things happening in Scottish football every week. If this is a red card, then every game there should be three, four red cards.

“So the only thing we can do now is to appeal this, because I don’t understand that you can go to the screen and then stick to your opinion of the red card, but it happened.

“No, I didn’t speak to the referee , because I know how these things go.

“He’s in the emotions, I’m in the emotions, so that’s not a good moment.

“It’s a good thing we have the open communication with the referee department, and we’re going to appeal that, and then we’re going to see what they think about it, and also to ask what the VAR said.”

Clement was pleased with the way his side responded to going a goal behind.

“In the first half it was a 50-50 game,” said the Belgian boss who dismissed speculation about Ridvan Yilmaz leaving the club as a “total shambles” and revealed that the Turkey left back was injured.

“I think everybody enjoyed the game.

“Two teams going full, with a lot of energy, with a lot of power, with a lot of duels.

“We knew it was a hard place to come to, to get this away victory, but my players dug in.

“In the second half they stepped up, with more quality on the ball than we had in the first half, and scoring three really good goals, and also getting a few other really good chances.”

United boss Jim Goodwin rued the loss of Rangers’ second goal early in the second half when Propper was left unmarked inside the box, before his shot deflected off Holt and into the net.

He said: “I think it’s a case of what could have been as far as we’re concerned, in terms of the opening 45 minutes and the opportunities that we were able to create.

“I thought before Rangers managed to get the equaliser, I thought we actually could have been a couple of goals in front.

“There’s not a great deal the boys can do about the equaliser. I don’t think Jack Walton can see it but the timing of the second goal was something that we didn’t anticipate. I think it’s self-inflicted.

“We’ve hit the woodwork three times, albeit one of them was deemed to be offside.

“We’re unlucky with the one that comes off the Rangers player and crashes onto the side of the post. But the second half just wasn’t good enough for us as far as we’re concerned.”