Aberdeen boss Barry Robson paid tribute to his players after they took Rangers to the wire before conceding a late penalty at Pittodrie for a 1-1 draw.

“I felt we performed really well in the game. First half, we pressed so well, we transitioned well, we played with speed, we were exciting, we could have been 2-0 up in the first 11 minutes and we looked like a real Aberdeen team.

“It’s hard to play at that tempo and speed for the whole game against a team like Rangers who have real quality. We knew they would have their periods with the ball, but we coped with it well, had a good shape, made some good substitutions, then got hit with a sucker punch at the end.”

VAR had a role to play once again and Robson revealed that the very kind of incident that lead to Rangers’ last gasp penalty equaliser had been discussed at a meeting last week.

“There was a VAR meeting last week which they put on in Glasgow again, and I missed it because I was up here training and preparing for the game – it wasn’t great timing. I’m told a lot was said about pulling shirts in the box and the referees said that not every one of those is a penalty.

“Today, Stefan got blocked initially, we can all see that, but they’ve not looked at that, they’ve just looked at the shirt being pulled. We’re in trouble aren’t we if this is the way we’re going to go?

“I’m just frustrated. So many decisions have gone against us this season, we could be in a very different place to where we are, but we keep going.”

There were plenty of positives for the Dons though, not least in Ester Sokler’s first start for the club.

“Ester was excellent, he works very hard in training and he was deserving of his chance. He’s come off the bench a lot but I just felt this was the right time for him. He performed very well and I’m pleased for him because he’s a good kid. He’s got a good bit of pace, plays on the shoulder, great in the transitions and he’s an exciting player.

“We were really good defensively as well. Bear in mind we were seven games in before we got the back three together and then we’ve played pretty much every midweek since, we’ve had no real time on the coaching pitch since then, we’re not going to be the perfect team yet, we’ve had to rebuild, so we will only get stronger once we can get back to a normal working week after the winter break.

“We’re away to Helsinki in the week, away then at Hibs and that will be seven out of eight games away from home, with only Rangers at Pittodrie. That is a tough schedule and with that in mind, the boys have been great. We need to stay in the fight and we are doing that.”