Neil Warnock's Barmy Aberdeen Army is here as victorious Rangers have ears boxed by blue-suited septuagenarian

The next few months promise to be a lot of fun as 75-year-old Yorkshireman finally makes his appearance in Scottish football

After being led by someone born after Gothenburg ’83 for the first-ever time on Saturday against Celtic, Aberdeen have gone back to the future – way back – by appointing a manager who came into the world a year after the club won their first-ever major trophy in 1947.

Just what on earth is going on at Pittodrie? The way Aberdeen started here seemed indicative of what appeared very much like scrambled thinking on the part of the powers that be. Neil Warnock’s 1627th match as a manager – but his first in Scottish football – began worryingly for the visitors after it took just seven minutes for them to bow to almost constant Rangers pressure.

It was a goal that might have firmed up all those lazy preconceptions of Scottish goalkeepers for many of those from south of the Border persuaded to tune into the live coverage by the fuss surrounding the 75-year-old Warnock. However, Kelle Roos is from Rijkevoort in the Netherlands, and indeed played nearly a decade in English football. The usually reliable ‘keeper pushed out a tame looking shot from Ross McCausland only as far as Rabbi Matondo, who swept home. Warnock’s impressive record of winning each of 11 – count ‘em – debut matches going all the way back to his stint at Oldham in 1997 was already looking seriously under threat.

Neil Warnock, centre, was suited and booted prior the match between Rangers and Aberdeen at Ibrox.

The wisdom in him coming out of retirement for “a bit of fun” also looked suspect, so too the decision to invite the qualified chiropodist to scratch an itch in Aberdeen. Only Dundee hiring 64-year-old Mark McGhee out of nowhere two years ago seemed comparable. At least Warnock was able to take his seat in the dugout from the get-go, unlike the suspended McGhee. Finally there was an age appropriate Aberdeen manager for their regulation black club gilet.

Warnock was clearly loving it. It will be a long time – well, four days at least, when Ayr United’s Scott Brown is due in town – until an opposition manager receives such a level of attention at Ibrox. Photographers crowded around the away dugout. Philippe Clement looked almost as alone as he did in the dying moments of the first half, after Aberdeen claimed a smash-and-grab equaliser to provide the Warnock era with a belated lift off they could not quite sustain.

Chairman Dave Cormack made his fortune from software companies. Would he ever countenance hiring someone aged 75 – who, moreover, has little knowledge of the surrounding landscape – in any other of his business activities? One would suggest not. But football is football. It operates on its own wildly entertaining – some would say dysfunctional - terms. How else do you explain Aberdeen reaching the dressing room at half-time on level terms after Bojan Miovski deftly steered the ball beyond Jack Butland with what felt like his first touch of the half? Football, bloody hell – as Warnock’s one-time arch enemy and one of many Aberdeen predecessors Sir Alex Ferguson once said.

Warnock was just starting out in this managerial odyssey at Gainsborough Trinity FC when Ferguson was brushing the Easter Road grass of his suit after running onto the pitch to celebrate only Aberdeen’s second-ever Scottish title after a 5-0 win over Hibs in 1980. Three years later, a few days before the Pittodrie side celebrated their greatest night against Real Madrid in the European Cup-Winners’ Cup final, Warnock was soothing his bruises – literally, as he was a still a player too – after his Burton Albion side lost in the final of the President’s Cup to King’s Lynn. It might be easier to list the clubs he hasn’t managed since then.

Warnock gives instructions from the sidelines during the Dons' 2-1 defeat.

And here he was, finally in Scotland, having taken over from 40-year-old interim boss Peter Leven. Warnock cheerily admits that his most significant tie to Scotland before accepting the short-term post is a log cabin in Dunoon, where his wife Sharon’s grandparents are from. He regularly spends time there to the extent that he has been invited to watch games at the Rangers Supporters’ Club premises on the Cowal peninsula.

Warnock is aware of the mixed reaction his hiring has received among Dons fans. He estimated that 50 per cent wanted him in, 50 per cent didn’t, which, judging from his popularity rating at some of the clubs he’s been at, isn’t too bad.It’s the club he once mentioned that he favours in Scotland that’s the problem, certainly as far as Aberdeen supporters – probably all those in the not-happy half – are concerned. It might not have been helpful appearing at the side of the Ibrox pitch about an hour before kick-off in a royal blue suit and brown brogues to drink in the scene.

He clearly doesn’t care and those Aberdeen fans who do were quickly shedding their misgivings as the visitors began to carry out Warnock’s instructions to a tee, it seemed. “Have fun – but in a disciplined way,” he urged them beforehand. “Neil Warnock’s Barmy Army!” got its first airing after 50 minutes. Jonny Hayes, who Warnock said he had tried to six times in England, scampered up and down the left flank like his life depended on it. His first start since the Viaplay Cup final against Rangers smacked of Warnock wanting to play one of the players he had heard of before. And perhaps he should have stayed on, because not long after he departed the scene on 69 minutes Rangers restored their lead, after another goal scored following a save.

This time Roos looked less at fault after stopping Tom Lawrence’s effort. He was powerless to prevent Cantwell rifling into the bottom corner although a couple of Aberdeen defenders could have done better. Still, it said everything about the away side’s efforts that ten-man Rangers – Dujon Sterling was sent off with three minutes of regulation time left, a decision referee Don Morrison stood by despite being invited to review it on VAR – were grateful to hear the final whistle. However, no-one was more relieved than fourth official Colin Steven.

He had spent the previous 90 plus minutes having his ears boxed by a septuagenarian from south Yorkshire. With Dick Campbell now also back in football at East Fife, the next few months are going to be a lot of fun.

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