Kevin Thomson was sent off for a foul on St Mirren's Stevie Thomson

Rangers have lost a last-gasp appeal against the red card shown to Kevin Thomson in Sunday's Co-operative Insurance Cup final.

The Ibrox club waited until moments before the 1700 GMT deadline to contest the dismissal in a bid to allow Thomson to play against Dundee United.

Referee Craig Thomson swiftly reviewed the incident and rejected the appeal.

"The referee has indicated that he is content with his decision," said a Scottish FA spokesman.

"Accordingly, the claim is dismissed automatically and will not be referred to the Review Panel. The decision of the referee to send off Kevin Thomson is confirmed and the player's automatic one-match suspension is applied, with 12 penalty points being added to his SPL disciplinary record.

"Furthermore, the player incurs a one-match fixed suspension from 4 April for reaching the disciplinary threshold of 18 points."

The midfielder was sent off at Hampden for a second-half lunge on St Mirren's Steven Thomson.

Despite being reduced to nine men, with Thomson and Danny Wilson both sent off at Hampden, Kenny Miller grabbed the cup-winning goal for Rangers late on.

Thomson, who now misses the Scottish Cup quarter-final replay at Tannadice, thought his challenge had merited a yellow card rather than a red.

However, assistant manager Ally McCoist thought the midfielder's challenge was worthy of a sending off.

"My initial reaction was that it was a red card," said McCoist on the eve of the trip to Tayside.

"The gaffer still thinks it was a little harsh, as does Thommo and a few of the lads.

Thomson was aggrieved at his sending off, which took the gloss off celebrating his side's win at the national stadium.

"I felt, if the referee had blown for the foul on me to begin with, it would have stopped my challenge from happening," he told Rangers' website.

"It was a lunge and I never got much of the ball, but there certainly wasn't any malice in my tackle, yet that's the third time Craig Thomson has sent me off now.

"I get on quite well with Steven Thomson and I had a wee bit of banter with him throughout the game.

"I'm pretty sure he knows that there was no intent.

"The sending-off ruined my cup final to be honest and I'm really disappointed with how it panned out."

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