Dons boss Neil Warnock enjoyed his first taste of life in the Pittodrie dugout as his side moved into the quarter-finals of the Scottish Cup by beating Bonnyrigg Rose 2-0.

“In the cup, if you get a clean sheet and get through, that’s all you can do. I’ve never had a comfortable cup game. I prefer to be the underdog where you can just give it a go, the way they did. They brought a great following, they had a good day out. The atmosphere was good, our fans behind the goals were great, I had to go and give them a wave afterwards!

“I’ve enjoyed my first week up here, and I’ve been impressed with the two referees we’ve had as well, so that’s a good start! I think we can improve, there’s ability within the camp, and we need to get our teeth into the league now. I enjoyed the atmosphere today, though obviously there were things that frustrated me. I’ve given a few other lads an opportunity, I’ve answered a few questions, so it was a good day.

“The important thing is we’re through. I had a message from Dougie Imrie at Morton before the game saying he hoped we’d win and they’d get us in the next round. He must be confident after beating Motherwell! I think we can give anybody a game, but it would be nice to be at home.”

There were five changes to the team that lost at Ibrox in midweek, including a debut for goalkeeper Ross Doohan.

“Ross has done well in training, I wanted to see him on the pitch. His handling and his talking was good, I was pleased with him. Duk and Shayden put in a real effort, they contributed. I felt sorry for Duk because I had to move him after half an hour when we were getting overrun a bit in the middle and I wanted to bring Dante inside and so Duk had to play wide on the left. He did it without complaint.”

Bojan Miovski was the goalscoring hero once more, fulfilling a pre-match request from his manager.

“Bojan had been unwell before the game. So I said to Bojan, score a couple and come off at half-time, unless you want 15 minutes more to try and get your hat-trick! So when he got his second he gave me a little smile!

“He’s a top finisher. I’ve had good goalkeepers and centre-halves, midfielders as well, through my career but never so many strikers. It’s ironic, coming here and finding probably the best one I ever had.”

Graeme Shinnie came off at half-time, and the manager had a word for the importance of his captain in the weeks ahead.

“You look at the squad and you can’t do without Shinnie, he’s as important as Bojan really, so it was sensible to bring him off after he got a booking. You could see that in the second half, we didn’t have that same quality in there. Players like that seem to get better with age. Dante got the armband because he was nearest to me when we had to come out, I think he was more surprised than anybody.”

Gallery 37 | Aberdeen v Bonnyrigg Rose