NEIL WARNOCK slammed the Rangers ball boys for time-wasting after his first game in charge of Aberdeen ended in a 2-1 defeat.
The legendary manager, 75, was appointed head coach of The Dons on Monday and was tasked with heading to Ibrox just 24 hours later.
Despite just one win in six league games coming into the match, the visitors pushed Philippe Clement’s side all the way.
After Rabbi Matonda put Rangers in front early on, Aberdeen levelled on the stroke of half-time through Bojan Miovski.
But ex-Norwich man Todd Cantwell fired Rangers back in front with 17 minutes remaining, before they held on to clinch a narrow win despite Dujon Sterling being dismissed in the closing stages.
After the match, Warnock took aim at the behaviour of the ball boys as he vented his frustrations.
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He said: “At the end there, you’ve got the ball boys adding five minutes on.
“They were really tuned in weren’t they, not giving them the ball back, make them climb over the wall.
“Do they have their own teachers?”
In his post-match press conference, he also accused them of “hiding” the balls “under their jumpers”.
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During the game, Warnock was embroiled in a heated exchange with the fourth official.
He then confirmed the topic of conversation to the BBC, saying: “I just telling him how the Rangers lads were getting away with murder.”
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However, he did compliment the referee for sticking with his decision to send Sterling off for a late tackle, despite the VAR sending him over to the monitor to review the challenge.
Warnock added: “It makes a change doesn’t it for a referee to be brave and stick with his decision? We don’t get that in England.”
The result sees Aberdeen drop to ninth in the Scottish Premiership table, but they are still just one point adrift of the top six.
Meanwhile, Rangers have now won five league games on the bounce to move level on points with Celtic at the top.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
