Squeaky bum time for the duration, but a vital victory against an until now unbeaten Celtic side reports Voice’s Andrew Watson.
The wind blew through Pittodrie, and along with it came a rain which at times hailed horizontally.
The velocity of play was intense and made the mind boggle as to how it could be maintained throughout.
It didn’t take the crowd long to be up in arms.
The home support greeted Virgil van Dijk’s sending off as one would welcome a goal or a cup final. So after only 12 minutes, Celtic were down to ten men.
Although this somewhat evened up proceedings, Celtic managed to put Aberdeen under a lot of pressure regardless.
On the 41 minute mark, Niall McGinn found Jonny Hayes. The Dubliner took a chance from thirty yards and found the top corner, denting Fraser Forster’s clean sheet record.
1-0 Aberdeen!
Only 4 minutes later McGinn found on form Adam Rooney, whose diving header in turn found the net.
2-0 Aberdeen!
What proceeded in the second half was sustained pressure from the Parkhead men, and if I could blame anyone for what followed I would point to Alan Tate. His poor headed clearance handed Celtic a goal, and a way back into the game.
2-1 (James Forrest) after 62 minutes.
From where I was sitting, in the Main Stand, the Englishman could have made a pass back to Jamie Langfield, but opted to head out the box; which inevitably found Scott Brown.
Tate left the pitch on the 83 minute mark, with Joe Shaughnessy coming on. Shaleum Logan also came off to make way for Russell Anderson.
Peter Pawlett came off after 92 minutes to be replaced by Scott Vernon.
The Dons were definitely lucky to win this one, though it must be said that Celtic took for granted they’d eventually win the game.
Final score: 2-1.
- Comments enabled – see comments box below. Note, all comments will be moderated.
COYR
To be fair, I think the ref had already marked Celtic’s card after a couple of ‘meaty’ challenges went flying in before the sending off. The red card itself could have gone either way. It could be argued that Pawlett was actually running away from goal and that van Dijk was neither the last man or had prevented a clear scoring chance. I have to admit to being somewhat mystified about Aberdeen’s ‘tactics’ after the restart. They started knocking the ball around the back, inviting Celtic to come at them. I had a feeling that this might prove to be our downfall and it very nearly was. At times, the Aberdeen players looked like they’d never seen a ball before, let alone be cruising at 2-0 with an extra man.It all made for a very nervy second half and Tate looked out of his depth at times, so it was no surprise….nay, it was a RELIEF when he was substituted. Logan too deserved to be hooked. I felt he did okay in the first half but looked jaded in the second. The timely substitutions made a huge difference and most likely were the difference between taking one point or all three.