TODAY’S SPFL nearly top-of-the-table clash between Aberdeen and Celtic has engendered a bit of interest, particularly from those drawing then and now comparisons. Celtic’s current lead in the table looks healthy. Nine points over Aberdeen this deep in to the season is something most would take. Where the excitement is being generated in some quarters, comes from those who hark back to a year ago when at virtually the same date on the calendar, 24 points stood between Brendan Rodgers and Derek McInnes.

Reasons to be cheerful and optimistic then for Aberdeen fans? Perhaps, but not for one ex-Dons man who served the Pittodrie club well and got to play in a “good” team.

Because for Robert Connor – who was both capped and signed by Sir Alex Ferguson – the Dandy Dons have had a better opportunity to beat Celtic -– and blew it.

“A win for Aberdeen on Sunday would certainly keep things interesting, but this season is more about Celtic dropping the standards they set last season rather than vast improvements from Aberdeen and Rangers,” Connor said. “It was unrealistic of anyone to think Celtic could be at this stage of the season again with only two draws against them. Instead, they’ve failed to win a third of their games.

“Aberdeen and Rangers should have been closer, but you can’t be losing to the likes of Hibs or Kilmarnock respectively if you are trying to mount a creditable challenge or be considered real contenders. Hence why Celtic are still out in front, by a distance.

“For me, looking at things from an Aberdeen perspective, if they were ever going to beat Celtic in the league, it would have been a few years ago. Taking everything in to consideration, Aberdeen were closer to Celtic then – under Ronny Deila – than they are now. For whatever reason, Celtic didn’t take to Deila – or maybe it was vice versa.

“Celtic’s performance levels did recede during those couple of seasons. Remember as well, Rangers were out of the picture. In effect, Aberdeen had one team to worry about, and to beat, and they didn’t manage it.”

In the 2014/15, Aberdeen finished the campaign 17 points behind, and were two points better off at the end of the next term. But for Connor, that was the season where Aberdeen came second and it was all of their own making.

In September 2015 Aberdeen beat Celtic and, a few weeks later, were five points clear. Admittedly, and Connor concedes, it was early on in the season. But they had Celtic rocking and Deila was under pressure.

However, Aberdeen then took one point from 15, and lost to Celtic during that spell. And for Connor, the chance, the best chance in recent times, had gone.

“Celtic were not the team they’d been under Neil Lennon, or today with Brendan Rodgers in charge. I look back and that was the dip, the low point, in where Celtic were as a team in recent years. They were always going to come back from that. But to be honest, they were assisted by the Dons going totally off the boil.

“For me, given what Celtic were doing on the pitch, and where Rangers were, that was the best chance anyone has had of ending the duopoly – or monopoly in more recent years – in Scottish football.

“Celtic have too much in terms of the players, and the squad, and how they could recruit when they needed to. Those were elements that Derek McInnes couldn’t really match a few seasons ago, and has struggled with since. Celtic lose or sell a player, they replace like with like. Aberdeen do it, and it can take time to find the right player, time they cannot afford.

“Right now, I know we are later in the season, but Aberdeen need Celtic to lose three games out of the 11 remaining, while Aberdeen have also struggled in games against Rangers. Celtic are top and for me they’ll stay there.”

Observing the current crop at Aberdeen from afar, Connor – who now runs a successful business specialising in roof drainage systems – is bemused by some of the plaudits they receive compared to his time in the Granite City.

“We hear this is a good Aberdeen team at present. And they are. But then I heard that about the team I played in. That was the team that won the League Cup and the Scottish Cup in the same season, beating Rangers and Celtic respectively, and the following season came a hair’s breadth of winning the championship at Ibrox. On the last day of the season.

“That is close – not 10 or 15 points close. Down to a decider against Rangers on the last day. If we’d kept a clean sheet we would have been champions; no nine in a row, Rangers domination halted. A hard one to take.

“But we were a good team. Not great; the great one had won titles and won in Europe. So, we were just a good team – like the current side,” says a bemused Connor.

“That though, is entirely down to perspective. We followed a team, that under Alex Ferguson had dominated a Scottish scene which was at a time when Dundee United reached the semi-finals of the European Cup. Both were able to beat Rangers and Celtic regularly, in domestic competitions.

“That was the level of competition then, and, how high the bar was set.”

And, maybe why Connor doesn’t get too carried away with where the Dons or Scottish football is at present.

“Players and teams – and I’m speaking in general terms today – are elevated to a level that is false,” says the former Ayr United, Dundee and Kilmarnock man. “Is the football better than 25 or 30 years ago? I’d say no. The fitness and conditioning of the players is maybe better, and the marketing and advertising around the televised football is miles ahead.

“But in terms of the players playing the game – and we are talking Scottish players here – the answer is no. And all that marketing and hype doesn’t convince me otherwise.

“We are told things are good, but that is ignoring the facts. I have gone and watched the Scottish teams facing opposition from the continent in European competition.

“That is a proper perspective, a benchmark and a true level of where we are, and unfortunately, that level isn’t very high, and I’m not talking Celtic here.

“When your European contingent – like Aberdeen, like St Johnstone, like Rangers – is decimated after just a handful of games, that isn’t a great place to be. It’s poor.

“But I’ll still watch Aberdeen and Celtic.”