Rangers' hopes of Champions League football next season suffered a blow when they were held to a draw by Aberdeen.

Kris Boyd had given the Ibrox club the lead but that was cancelled out when Scott Severin's effort was deflected into the back of his own net by Julien Rodriguez.

The result allowed Hearts - who beat Kilmarnock - to increase the gap between themselves and Rangers to five points in the race for second place in the Bank of Scotland Premier League.

Earlier in the week, UEFA had cleared Rangers fans of 'discriminatory chanting' during their Champions League games against Villarreal.

But, regardless of the songbook, there was little for the Ibrox faithful to sing about during this affir.

Aberdeen had been grateful just to sneak into the SPL's top six for the remaining five games of the season but, with Champions League football up for grabs, the stakes were high for Rangers.

They huffed and puffed in the early stages of the game but they just could not blow down a stubborn Aberdeen defence.

Instead, it was the Dons who almost snatched a shock opener when Jamie Smith flighted their first corner of the match to the feet of Zander Diamond and the defender unleashed a thunderous 25-yard shot.

Rangers goalkeeper Ronald Waterreus managed to block with his body on the line but how much the Dutchman actually knew about the last-gasp save was debatable.

Sparked into life, Rangers tried their best to put Aberdeen under pressure when Barry Ferguson threaded the ball into the path of Boyd but his shot was comfortably smothered by Dons keeper Jamie Langfield.

Dado Prso came closer when he met a Chris Burke corner only to see his close-range header just touched wide of the target by Langfield.

Rangers then claimed for a penalty when Boyd raced into the box chasing a Burke ball and appeared to have his heels clipped by Diamond but the pleas were ignored by referee Mike McCurry.

There was still time for the Ibrox club to sneak the opener before the break but again Langfield was on hand to tip Sotirios Kyrgiakos' header over from six yards.

Only the woodwork prevented Aberdeen from taking the lead shortly after the break when Gary Dempsey met Steve Lovell's lay-off only to see his 25-yard effort come crashing off the crossbar.

Instead, with 50 minutes gone, it was Rangers who broke the deadlock.

A Prso header was collected by Boyd, whose long, low shot shot fizzed past the Aberdeen goalkeeper, before nestling in the bottom corner of the net.

He could have grabbed his second of the day when he met Prso's overhead kick only to nod inches over in front of the gaping goalmouth.

Kyrgiakos picked up the first booking of the game for a challenge on Dempsey just outside the box.

But it was the resulting free-kick which proved to be a lot more damaging for Rangers when a Severin shot was deflected into the back of his own net by Rodriguez after 67 minutes.

Rangers made the first change of the game when Ian Murray replaced Alan Hutton, before Thomas Buffel was swapped for Nacho Novo a few moments later.

News of Hearts' goals had filtered through and Rangers knew they were in desperate need of a winner.

Brahim Hemdani was sacrificed for Gavin Rae as Rangers surged forward but it was the unlikely source of Rodriguez - who had played an unfortunate part in Aberdeen's goal - who stabbed wide.

It proved to be a disappointing end to a frustrating day for Rangers.

Teams:

Rangers Waterreus, Hutton (Murray 73), Rodriguez, Kyrgiakos,Smith, Burke, Hemdani (Gavin Rae 82), Ferguson,Buffel (Novo 76), Prso, Kris Boyd.

Subs Not Used: Klos, Andrews, Alex Rae, Campbell.

Booked: Kyrgiakos.

Goals: Kris Boyd 51.

Aberdeen Langfield, Diamond, Anderson, McNaughton, Clark,Foster, Severin, Dempsey, Snoyl (Nicholson 90),Smith (Crawford 87), Lovell (Mackie 87).

Subs Not Used: Esson, Considine, Macauley, MacFarlane.

Goals: Severin 68.

Att: 48,987

Ref: M McCurry (Scotland).