'Berserk': Rangers hero's phone blows up as Nico Raskin gets love-bombed and Sunderland play part in win

And with good reason. Not only was Neil captaining Rangers on his Old Firm derby debut, but the 24-year-old netted two excellent goals and was a deserved man of the match.

The win set up a Premier Sports Cup semi-final date with Aberdeen, making Rangers favourites to win the competition. It was the team’s fifth victory in a row and sets them up nicely for their next clash against Celtic, which comes at Parkhead this weekend.

"My phone's went berserk since I get into changing room,” admitted Neil. “I had a few friends and family up for the game so I'm looking forward to seeing them and they'll be shocked that I scored.”

Neil doesn’t normally find the back of the net. An intelligent and disciplined midfield, his role as a No 6 is to create. But he showed excellent composure to whip home the opener before putting the tin lid on affairs with a sumptuous strike into the top corner towards the end.

“Two goals for me in any fixture is pretty good,” said Neil. “I haven't scored many braces, if any, in my career so unbelievable. I was putting my head on the pillow last night, thinking of scoring one, never mind two, so to come away with a brace is immense.

"But I have to give big credit to the to the whole team. I thought it was a real team performance out there and everyone deserves massive plaudits. The second one was similar, so it's obviously brilliant to get the two.”

Sunderland play part in Neil’s Rangers development

A summer signing from Sunderland, Neil admitted that his time on Wearside - where there is always pressure and a demanding fanbase - has helped steel him for the scrutiny at Rangers.

“Sunderland is a big club in England and the expectation is big and that's what gets us going for football games,” said Neil. "The expectation of winning and the absolute dread of losing and knowing that you making or breaking people's weekends that's what motivates you day in, day out.

"I think it did set me up well for it. The emotions up here are a little bit more up and down than at Sunderland but that's just testament how big of a club it is and how much people care about it and I think that's the main thing I was looking for."

Rangers are steadily improving after a difficult start to manager Derek McInnes’ tenure. "I think if you go back the start season when it wasn't going great,” said Neil, “all the new signings and all the change at the club ... I think you've seen after a few weeks that one; the team cohesion, the team togetherness is there, there's no doubt about that.

"And two, the things that we've been working on in that the training are starting to come out on a match day. We all wanted to happen with a click of the fingers, but football is not like that.

"We've worked very hard on the training pitch to rectify what we've been doing wrong and listen to still loads of things that we need to improve on in my opinion as well as well as everyone else's. But the fact that we churn out results and things are starting to be positive is really good and gives the group confidence."

Neil is forming a solid central midfield partnership with Nicolas Raskin and the ex-Sunderland man is enjoying being beside the Belgian. “I think Nico is a fantastic player,” said Neil. “I watched him at the World Cup before I even joined the club and I thought he was absolutely brilliant for Belgium and he's shown his quality since he's came in.

"Not just his qualities as a footballer, but as a lad as well and he's desperate to do well for this football club and I think you can say that in his performances.

"Talk about our partnership, but we've still got some other midfielders who are very good that need to be ready also and everyone has to work together Bojan [Miovski] is the biggest example of that in the striker situation. He was ready to come on and make an impact.

"It's a team game and from what I've seen, everybody's ready to make an impact when they can."