Mark Warburton believes that “fine margins” are going against Rangers at the moment, after their last-gasp defeat at Aberdeen left the Ibrox side without a win in their last four league games.

That poor run of results sees them currently down in seventh place in the Premiership standings, seven points adrift of leaders Celtic having played a game more.

The Rangers manager’s major gripe from the defeat at Pittodrie was with referee John Beaton’s decision to award a late free-kick on the edge of the area that Dons midfielder James Maddison duly converted to claim the three points.

Warburton says though that he is pleased with the level of performance that his men are producing, and he hopes that the rub of the green will soon start to go the way of his team.

“The free-kick, which is well-documented and I think it has been clarified, that it wasn’t a free-kick,” Warburton said.

“Those are the fine margins that aren’t going our way. There’s no excuses, we’re not looking for the sympathy vote, far from it.

“But we know we went to Pittodrie, delivered a good display and should have come away with the points.

“It’s never ever an excuse. You’ve got to look at it and say over the course of the season what goes around comes around, so you’d like to think they even themselves out over the course of a 38 games.

“Certainly when you look at it then it is very fine margins. Tav [James Tavernier] for me, here’s a defender with 89 minutes gone, played in a high tempo match with all the demands of that game, he makes a great run and a fantastic tackle.”

Warburton’s frustration at losing to Aberdeen due to Maddison’s goal from the contentious free-kick award was heightened by the fact that he felt his side should actually have won the game.

The Rangers manager claims that even a point would have been a hugely frustrating return from their trip to the northeast, such was his side’s domination of the match.

“To come away with no points is never pleasing,” he said. “In truth though, we would have been frustrated with a draw.

“The first half was good, we were positive and were on the front foot. We came in at nil-nil and we were frustrated with that, then as I said after the game, we gave away as a group a schoolboy goal.

“But then, we got on the ball again and it was a great run by Lee [Wallace] and a great passage of play to get the rewards.

“We were frustrated at one-all if I’m honest, we felt that we should have had more out of the game.”