AS predicted, Brendan Rodgers didn't slide onto his knees in celebration of his first trophy as Celtic manager. He didn't kiss the badge or run into the crowd with his tongue out. And he certainly didn't strip to his underpants, as his predecessor Ronny Deila once did during his days in Norwegian football.

Instead, the Northern Irishman simply walked three steps to his left, shook hands with his opposite number Derek McInnes, offered a wave and a thumbs up sign to the stands, before shaking hands with all his players and following them on an understated half lap of honour.

Perhaps symbolically, he was last to lift the trophy. Aside, of course, from the 2011 play-off final with a Scott-Sinclair inspired Swansea City at Wembley, what was a few more seconds when it has taken him his entire eight-year coaching career to get some silverware?

The Celtic manager swore blind in the build-up to this match that he won't define his success or failure as a manager by how many trophies he has on his resume when he is old and grey. That may well be true. But others, rightly or wrongly, will.

Not that Rodgers, if he continues to rack up titles in Scottish football at this rate, will have anything to worry about by this criteria. Celtic's 100th major prize will not be his last. For starters, few right now would be against him racking up another two of them this season, following Jock Stein and his countryman Martin O'Neill as the only two men in the club's history to take their team to a treble.

If Rodgers had feigned ambivalence about the destination of the cup, Derek McInnes hadn't hidden his desperation to get his hands back on a trophy he had held aloft at Celtic Park only a few seasons back. Seeing the Pittodrie side at Hampden to contest a League Cup final before the turn of the year seemed like a throwback to the times when Skol and Coca Cola were the sponsors. The first since 1998 to be handed out at this stage of the season, McInnes hoped to achieve a feat which eluded even Sir Alex Ferguson at Pittodrie, by winning his second League Cup. This was the club's 29th major final, their 27th at the national stadium, and if the Dons spelled out there intentions beforehand as they stood arm-in-arm across the centre circle, like a rugby team facing the All Blacks and their dreaded Haka, while Celtic went into their pre-match huddle.

While the Parkhead side went on to win this at a canter, the theatricals beforehand helped whet the appetite and the opening stages crackled with intent. Aberdeen game planned to stop Craig Gordon passing out from the back and get the quick feet of James Maddison into dangerous areas, but keeping Celtic out was always going to be the problem. The first time Emilio Izaguirre made any ground down the left, central defenders Ash Taylor and Anthony O'Connor were nowhere to be seen and Joe Lewis was forced into a fine diving save from a Moussa Dembele header.

This wasn't a particularly poor display from Aberdeen or a particularly inspired one from Celtic but, a bit like the Parkhead side's Champions League meeting with Barcelona in midweek, they were still able to hit heights which the Pittodrie side couldn't reach. When Jozo Simunovic gambled forward from the back to force the issue, he reacted quicker to a loose ball than Kenny MacLean in the Aberdeen midfield to funnel the ball wide to Tom Rogi. The Australian, whose errant penalty cost Celtic at this venue against Rangers in last year's Scottish Cup semi-final, fooled Shinnie to jink onto his favoured left foot and curled a beauty into the far bottom corner.

McInnes protested vehemently about referee John Beaton's failure to book Scott Brown - his foul count eventually caught up with him in the second period when he caught Maddison on halfway - but the Parkhead skipper was a tower of strength for his team here. Craig Gordon also had one telling save from an Andrew Considine header.

Inspirational too was James Forrest, a scorer on League Cup final day for Celtic against Dundee United only two seasons ago. If Aberdeen thought there was no menace when he picked up a short pass some 40 yards out and embarked on a run then they were to be proved horribly wrong. Nobody wanted to deal with the situation and Forrest took the opportunity to engage O'Connor one on one and fire the ball low into the bottom corner.

Forrest had blotted his copy book somewhat back in 2014 by winning a spot kick, wrestling the ball from popular penalty taker John Guidetti but allowing Rado Cierzniak to save, but yesterday the winger settled just for winning another one. Once again the fall guy was the luckless O'Connor, who was withdrawn shortly afterwards, but this time there was no dispute as regular penalty taker Moussa Dembele slotted it neatly into the bottom corner.

Forrest put one on a plate for Stuart Armstrong too and Rodgers' last act on cup final day was to delay his withdrawal until the last minute. It gave him the applause he deserved, even if it left his replacement Leigh Griffiths little time to make an impact. At least the striker can say he was on the field the day that Celtic won their 100th trophy. And the day that Rodgers won his first.