Furious Barry Robson questioned if VAR had bothered turning up at Ibrox after claiming Rangers defender Connor Goldson got off with denying Duk a clear goalscoring opportunity at Ibrox.
The Aberdeen ace was homing in on goal with the game scoreless when Goldson grabbed a handful of his jersey and prevented him getting a shot away on the edge of the box. TV replays showed the incident occurred outside the penalty area. But Robson reckons it was a key moment and can’t understand why referee John Beaton or VAR Steven Kirkland never called a foul.
Duk also spurned two glorious chances to net as the Dons went down 1-0. And Robson said: “You have those two unbelievable chances in the first half – they don’t come much better than one on one chances. And then obviously, the first half, is it a penalty or a free kick outside as well, I don’t know? It was one or the other. Where was VAR, anyone see it? Where was it? I don’t know. Was it in the building today, I am being serious?”
When it was pointed out to Robson the incident occurred outside the area he went on: “Okay. Was it a free kick? Well, where was VAR then? What is the point of all of us speaking? Because none of us know, do we? I don’t know.”
Robson also reckons he’d have been wasting his time approaching Beaton about the incident. He said: “Not allowed to do that either. We are all having a conversation here, does any of us know?”
Despite the defeat Aberdeen still sit five points clear of Hearts in third ahead of Hibs’ visit to Pittodrie on Saturday. Ross McCrorie missed out at Ibrox after having surgery on a hernia injury and Robson hopes to have the midfielder back “pretty quick”.
But the boss insists the confidence gained from their recent run of seven wins on the spin has not been dented by defeat at Ibrox. He said: “I think we have performed really well. We were aggressive at times against Rangers, not as aggressive as we were at home because it’s not easy to do that but we need to be that way when we play at home.
“The message was clear to the players - what a great game next week. We are at home, our fans are brilliant and we are looking forward to playing against Hibs.
“First half we should have scored a couple of goals, we had two brilliant chances to get a couple of goals up on Rangers. Second half it was a poor goal from us from a set play. I thought Kelle had a couple of good saves first half, second half he did not have a save to make.
“Rangers moved the ball about as they do, we know that – we know about the financial might of the Old Firm and what they’ve got. But I thought we were structurally very good. We looked like we would open them up quickly at times, a bit too quick at times. On another day it could have been a lot different result.”
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