Kelle Roos was on fine form for the Dons in the 1-1 draw with Rangers at Pittodrie but was disappointed that his side couldn’t quite hold on to all three points.

“We took the gameplan on board. We moved the ball out of congested areas, we used our energy to press, to win balls to cause some problems and to turn them over. We created some big chances early on and we took confidence from that and belief that this had all the ingredients to be a great day.

“It was frustrating to concede so late in a game where yes, they had chances, but we dealt with them with blocks and saves. They would have needed to come up with something special to score and its very sore that in the end, they equalised in this manner.

“I don’t want to go into the VAR decision too much, but my question is that if this is a foul, why are you allowed to block players when you have no intention of playing the ball, which happens at every corner? Every team does it at every corner. I just think it is very blurry about what is and isn’t a foul. That’s why it takes so long to make decisions maybe, and I think it is hard to judge the level of things on a screen too.”

The VAR decision allowed James Tavernier to level things up in added time, beating Roos from the penalty spot.

“Tavernier takes a lot of penalties and I know that he mixes it up a lot. I knew there was a chance he would play it down the middle but it isn’t his go-to penalty. I tried to look at him, as I always do, before the kick to try to see where it would go, but he lifted the ball and my trailing leg couldn’t reach it.”

Roos had plenty of praise for Ester Sokler, making his first Aberdeen start alongside Bojan Miovski up front, Sokler claiming an assist as he guided a header on for Miovski having been picked out by Roos’ long pass out of defence.

“I know from my own career in the past that not playing games is so hard. In his position, Ester does get on the pitch at some point in games and I know he works really hard to make sure he is ready to play whenever needed. He got his chance to start, in a very big game, and it’s incredible to see that energy he plays with.

“He knows what I like from the strikers and that if defenders drop in, there’s maybe a bit of space in front, so I was able to pick him out for the goal. I would have loved to see him score to because he deserves nothing less. It was an outstanding performance and he can be proud of himself for being so patient and so driven to be ready for that chance today.”

The two sides meet again at Hampden in three weeks time, but Roos insists that the Dons aren’t giving a thought to that game as yet.

“The cup final is just part of a tough schedule. We can’t be thinking of that game until it comes, we have to focus on getting some good results in the league and in Europe before then. We’re looking at Helsinki now. We should have won the game against them here, but we have to move away from ifs and buts and what might have been now and start getting what we deserve from games.”