GIOVANNI VAN BRONCKHORST reckons a VAR official was needed to get to the bottom of the controversy at Pittodrie.

The Dutchman saw Rangers drop points in the Premiership for the first time under his guidance as they were held by Aberdeen.

A second half penalty from Lewis Ferguson cancelled out Ianis Hagi's opener and saw Celtic cut the gap to just four points in the title race.

The Dons were aggrieved that referee Kevin Clancy didn't award a spot kick for an Allan McGregor challenge on Ryan Hedges.

And Rangers were hard done by late on as Ryan Kent picked up to soft bookings and was sent off.

Van Bronckhorst said: "Of course if you don’t have VAR, the decision that is made by referee is the decision that counts.

"If you have VAR and you get every angle, like with the long ball with Allan in the first half, maybe it is different. I don’t know.

"We saw with the penalty the wind. It is windy here, we saw the ball moving and maybe with VAR it has to be taken over [again].

"That is way it is. We have to accept the decisions by the referee and move on.

"It is a physical game with a lot of tackles, a lot of duels. You know there are going to be yellow cards on both sides.

"I don’t know. It is a decision by the ref. He got booked a little bit before so there is every chance when you make a foul the fans were going to scream.

"It is normal in a place like this. With ten men, I think we did well and worked hard to get the point."

Rangers were sluggish throughout a competitive Premiership affair as they failed to fire in the final third.

The Dons were more than worthy of their point in the end and Van Bronckhorst had no qualms about the final result.

Van Bronckhorst said: “As we said before, it was a really tough game. We had very tough first minutes which we knew would come.

“We scored I think at the right moment because the whole stadium wanted a penalty or maybe a free-kick.

“At that moment we scored the goal so I was happy with the first goal. After that, we knew they were going to push.

“We tried to defend really well. I think we did better in the first phase of the second half where we had a little bit of control of the game in that we didn’t give any chances away.

“But today I think we could have been better on the ball, especially when we were 1-0 up.

“If we had the control we normally have, which is very difficult in a place like this, I think we could have created a few more chances in the second half.

“But of course we knew they were going to push. I thought Aberdeen played physical but were also good on the ball.

“Then we got the penalty against us to make it 1-1. Of course, with 10 men we knew it would be hard.

"So in the end, especially with 10 men, we’re happy with the 1-1 because a point is a point.”

Rangers will now turn their attentions to the Scottish Cup as they prepare to host Stirling Albion on Friday night.

And the champions will be expected to raise their levels in front of goal after a lacklustre showing on their Premiership return.

Van Bronckhorst said: "Sometimes you have games like this. It is not like every place we go we dominate and create chances and be the dominant side. We knew it was going to be hard here.

"Of course we wanted to be better, especially on the ball. Today we weren’t so we go back to Glasgow with a point and we work to the cup game on Friday."