CONSPIRACY theorists will have a field day after Aberdeen’s first league win at Celtic Park since 2004 allowed the Dons to claim second place at Rangers’ expense.
But, while some at Parkhead no doubt will see the funny side about this turn of events, gearing up for next week’s Scottish Cup final with the first home domestic defeat of the Brendan Rodgers era was hardly what the Northern Irishman was hoping for.
At times, both sets of supporters here seemed more pre-occupied with keeping abreast of events at Easter Road, but in the end Derek McInnes’ first triumph against Rodgers in ten attempts – delivered by an early second-half goal from Andrew Considine – rendered it all irrelevant.
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While both managers conceded afterwards that the team which wanted the win more had got it, any conspiracy theorists out there should note that Rodgers had started with everybody’s best guess for Celtic’s Scottish Cup final starting line-up – save perhaps the inclusion of Craig Gordon for Scott Bain – and thrown on substitutes Stuart Armstrong, Scott Sinclair and Leigh Griffiths as they forced a number of fine late saves from Joe Lewis.
As much satisfaction as Celtic derived from celebrating their seventh Premiership title in a row afterwards, Aberdeen were lapping up their own personal four-in-a-row: of second-place finishes. It was a run of consistency which eluded even Sir Alex Ferguson in the 1980s, even if he threw in a few league titles along the way.
Defeat didn’t exactly spoil the party when the silverware, ticker tape and pyrotechnics were brought out but as it turned out they weren’t the only fireworks after the final whistle. While the rest of the Dons players were taking the acclaim of the travelling support, Shay Logan was being frog-marched back to the dressing room. The right-back was red carded after being involved in angry clashes with Mikael Lustig, then gesturing towards the Celtic fans, a group with which he has a bit of history.
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The form guide wasn’t exactly great for McInnes going in. Chasing a first league win at this venue since the days of Jimmy Calderwood, he stationed Graeme Shinnie as an attack dog in the vicinity of Scott Brown with Sam Cosgrove asked to plough a lone furrow up front. The small matter of £320,000 rested on the outcome – perhaps a couple of decent players for next season – and an extra week of holidays before the Europa League preliminaries start.
Greg Stewart enlivened a quiet start to the match with a whipped free-kick which struck the face of the crossbar, and Kristoffer Ajer did likewise with a mistimed clearance which briefly had Bain scrambling. But Moussa Dembele – wrapped in cotton wool in midweek – looked in the mood.
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The Frenchman powered down the left from an Olivier Ntcham pass to fire in a close-range finish from a narrow angle which Joe Lewis beat away, and it took a fine last ditch tackle from the excellent Anthony O’Connor to stop him getting a shot in from close range.
Being informed by his backroom team at half time that Rangers had drawn level at 3-3 spurred Aberdeen to be more pro-active and they got their reward. Kenny McLean expertly spun away from Ntcham and released the pass to find Considine in a pocket of penalty box space. The left back, on the bench for Aberdeen’s last win here, put his laces through it and found the bottom corner.
It wasn’t quite the Alamo but Celtic reached to the bench for re-inforcements and Griffiths, back after illness, was twice defied by the excellent Lewis, first from a trademark free-kick and then from a close range header. Both of these sides had something to be proud of at the final whistle, which only made the feuding which went on more remarkable.
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