RANGERS and their supporters had waited all season long for a moment that recalled better times and in the first week of December it finally arrived. There have been other minor achievements during a first top-flight campaign for four years – late winners against Dundee, Motherwell and Partick Thistle were all highlights in a relative sense – but, in a season of undulating, inconsistent form, there had been no real obvious peak. Matches against the teams Rangers used to consider rivals – Celtic, Aberdeen and Hearts – had delivered nothing but disappointment.

This, then, felt like a significant victory and Ibrox rose to acclaim it, the stadium noisier and rowdier than it has been at any point of the season. Just three days after a timid and weak performance against Hearts, and with manager Mark Warburton facing scrutiny into his stewardship like never before, Rangers produced what was arguably their best performance of the season. The scoreline was ultimately narrow but they were well worth the win against an Aberdeen side who came to Glasgow and left disappointed for the second time in a week.

Rangers remain a country mile behind league leaders Celtic but this result served as notice that they intend to get their elbows out in the battle to be the best of the rest. This victory, combined with Hearts’ late penalty miss against Ross County, had the effect of sending them back into second place ahead of an intriguing rematch with the Edinburgh side at Ibrox on Saturday.

The only downside from Rangers’ perspective was the red card shown to Clint Hill during a fractious final few minutes in which Aberdeen also had a man sent off – Ryan Jack, also for a second booking – and then fashioned what would prove to be a consolation goal via an Andy Considine header. The first Ibrox meeting between these sides in almost five years had been competitive and niggly throughout, although the Etihad-style rammy that looked increasingly inevitable during the late bouts of pushing and shoving mercifully never materialised.

Motivation for Rangers’ up-tempo performance seemingly stemmed both from the desire to improve on their impoverished midweek display but also as a response to what the manager felt had been excessive criticism of both him and his players following that Tynecastle loss.

“The players are more than irked by comments made about them, comments questioning their battling qualities and desire,” he said. “Irked is the polite way of putting it but they responded really well. They answered a lot of questions today, a lot of nonsense that’s been written about them. I’d be lying [if I said I wasn’t irked too]. The best way to answer those comments is to win games of football. Don’t get drawn into nonsensical rows.”

Rangers’ two goals came from one usual source and one more unlikely. They went in front early in the second half, not long after Aberdeen’s Jayden Stockley had passed up the best chance of the match by heading wide of goal. There was an element of good fortune about the way Joe Garner’s cross made it through to Kenny Miller but when the ball got there the veteran forward was as clinical with his finish as Stockley had been wasteful.

James Maddison was similarly profligate with two more Aberdeen opportunities and Rangers again made them pay. Lee Hodson was signed mainly for his robust defensive qualities but, in a rare start for the dropped James Tavernier, the Northern Irishman showed he can do a bit in the other box too. It stemmed from some nice interplay between Martyn Waghorn and Barrie McKay, with the latter then shoving a pass through to the advancing full-back who gave it a good welly past Joe Lewis for his first Rangers goal. In fact, it was his first goal for quite some time.

“My last goal was against Colchester for MK Dons about two years ago,” recalled Hodson after hastily ransacking the memory banks. “I've only got three or four in my career so it was really pleasing to get on the scoresheet today. But the most important thing was to get three points – it was massive for us today.”

Aberdeen have not won at Ibrox for more than 25 years and once they fell behind here never really looked likely of ending that unwanted sequence. On the back of the League Cup defeat to Celtic it concluded an unsatisfactory week for Derek McInnes and his players, although the manager was not overly despondent.

“In comparison to last week I felt the result was really harsh on my players,” he said. “I thought we played some good stuff and were really aggressive and committed. I don’t think there’s a lot between these two teams. We got the rub off the green a bit at Pittodrie to win a tight game and that inspiration was maybe lacking for us today.”