As if Blue Monday wasn’t gloomy enough for Rangers, they then had red-hot Tuesday to contend with.
What has been a perfect winter campaign for the Premiership leaders under new boss Giovanni van Bronckhorst suffered its first blemish on the return from the shutdown.
Stephen Glass’s fired-up Dons turned up the heat on the champions to claim a deserved point.
Partygate at Westminster has left the nation questioning whether we’re governed by a bare-faced liar as well as what constitutes a party.
But Rangers, with their Premiership lead trimmed back to four points, are now facing up to a simple truth that their path to a second straight title is going to be much tighter than last year’s procession.
Aberdeen were asking what makes a penalty a penalty at half-time as Kevin Clancy’s decision to play-on when Allan McGregor wiped out Ryan Hedges was followed moments later by Ianis Hagi firing the opener for Rangers.
The referee had no doubts in his mind about pointing to the spot after the break though as Alfredo Morelos’ handball allowed Lewis Ferguson to fire home a leveller. Any hopes Rangers have of making the most of this frustrating work event went up in smoke eight minutes from time when Ryan Kent collected his second booking within six minutes.
Two weeks out from their trip to Celtic Park, Gers were hoping to slap down another show of intent.
Instead van Bronckhorst saw his team drop league points for the first time under his watch.
The rights and wrongs of an Old Firm postponement look set to be argued out for a few more weeks but a call-off was not an avenue open to the Rangers boss as he faced a midfield crisis.
He was without this season’s star man Joe Aribo – currently at the Africa Cup of Nations – and had experienced midfield men Steven Davis and Scott Arfield out due to injury.
Those absences meant new recruit James Sands was thrust in for a debut against the Dons.
The US kid was reared in New York alongside football royalty having taken his first steps in the MLS alongside Andrea Pirlo and David Villa.
There were no airs and graces about his first taste of Scottish football as he ran out be slapped in the face by a brisk North Sea wind.
The man from the Big Apple was pitted against Aberdeen’s big cheese, the returning Scott Brown, who was back in action after a bout of illness.
As usual when these two face off in the Granite City, it didn’t take long for things to heat up.
Gers still looked like they were trying to get the blood pumping when the hosts came within an inch of a stunning sixth-minute opener.
Glen Kamara was out-muscled by Ferguson before Hedges fed the ball to Teddy Jenks, who took one touch before clipping the ball off the outside of McGregor’s post with the keeper beaten.
Jenks was encouraged to have another go moments later as Calvin Bassey backed off the on-loan Brighton ace. This time McGregor got down to grasp the low drive.
Bassey was looking less assured than he had done since being shunted into centre-back and when he failed to stop Funso Ojo creeping down the left Gers were exposed again.
The cut-back fell for Brown but there was no repeat of his Ibrox goal back in October as his strike kept on rising.
But a 60-second flashpoint flipped the balance of the first half on its head as the Ibrox men snatched ahead.
First came the controversy as Hedges raced past Borna Barisic to reach Jonny Hayes’ wind-assisted long ball.
The Aberdeen player lifted the ball over the onrushing McGregor but as his feet were wiped out by the Gers No.1’s trailing leg, he turned to see referee Clancy waving play on.
As Pittodrie went berserk, there was an inevitability about what happened next.
Rangers raced upfield. With former Don Scott Wright’s crossfield pass finding Kent.
He only had Hagi to aim at in the box but Ross McCrorie and David Bates both failed to spot the Romanian ghosting into the six-yard box to steer past Joe Lewis.
The home fans howled in protest while Hedges confronted linesman Graeme Stewart to protest his foul.
Ferguson took his own frustration out on the ball as he almost booted the leather off it as he launched a shot
on to the roof of the back-pedalling McGregor’s net straight from kick-off.
Brown put just as much behind a volley three minutes into the second half as the ball broke to him 15 yards out but only succeeded in sending the fans high in the Dick Donald stand scurrying for cover.
At the other end, Bates did well to block a James Tavernier effort with his body.
The temperature began to rise again as Clancy’s decision-making got under Dons’ skin.
McCrorie went into the book for a lunge on former Ibrox team-mate Morelos but Wright then escaped punishment after clumsily clattering Brown.
But the home support roared with approval as the official pointed to the spot with 18 minutes left after Morelos used an arm to halt Ferguson’s header from a Hayes corner.
Ferguson grabbed the spot-kick duties for himself as although the wind blew the ball off the spot towards him on his run-up he fired past McGregor to level.
That sent the decibel levels soaring but it was almost Gers celebrating a late win as Lewis fingertipped a Morelos volley away from the top corner.
Instead, the champions were forced to cling as Kent saw red. A needless booking on 76 minutes after squaring up to Hayes came back to haunt him six minutes later as he tripped Brown out on the touchline.
