Apologetic Aberdeen have axed tickets Rangers fans had bought for the Dons end at the Viaplay Cup Final – three days after a blunder left them red faced.

The Dons have held their hands up for system failures after their initial 17,000 allocation saw rival supporters go on to the club’s website and snap up briefs from the general sale. Record Sport understands that number to be around the 200 mark. But after a two-day probe, Aberdeen have finally identified the rogue purchasers and will not send out tickets but instead will refund the Rangers fans who bought them.

Dons CEO Alan Burrows insisted his club will now be applying extra checks on sales as he offered an explanation for the error. He said: “Hands up - a genuine mistake. When you are dealing with human beings, even the very good and experienced ones can make a rare error. The positive for us is that we have quickly fixed the oversight by retrospectively applying the normal protection rules to all purchases, checking them all and deactivating / refunding any that wouldn’t have passed the normal protocols.

“We know that this will cause some disappointment for some Dons supporters in this group too who have no recent transaction history with the club.”

Aberdeen had failed in their appeal for a 50-50 split of tickets which was rejected by the SPFL but they are expecting 2,500 additional tickets which help bolster the huge demand for fans desperate to see their team in the first domestic final of the season.

The Dons also responded to the furore by releasing the following statement which explains the mix-up and how it has been resolved. It read: “We apologise for any undue frustration or panic the general sale period may have caused. We understand this is a hugely important match for all our supporters who are keen to see their team play in a national cup final for the first time in five years.

“When determining arrangements for this match our experienced ticketing staff planned the process with the intention of trying to allow larger groups and families to sit together at the Cup Final. With hindsight, we should have created additional tiers to the sales process before going on general sale, and not doing so, has caused unneeded anxiety for our loyal fans. We are very sorry for this error.

“We have standard protocols in place for high-demand fixtures to prevent non-Aberdeen fans from purchasing in the designated Aberdeen fans’ sections. However, due to an unfortunate human error in our ticket office, an element of these protocols was missed on this occasion.

“As soon as we became aware of the issue, we worked quickly to rectify the problem with the ticketing team investigating all transactions purchased after 5pm on Tuesday. We have stringently checked all purchases made during this window to ensure they are compliant with our normal purchasing criteria, which includes a significant buying history.

“The small number of the ticket purchases, which did not meet these standard protocols, are being deactivated and refunded with immediate effect.”