CELTIC appear to have invented a new club policy to discourage their fans from leaving early.

For the second successive home SPFL match, they found themselves more than matched over 90 minutes only to take solace in goals scored after the fourth official had held up his board to display the number of additional minutes.

After 16 straight league defeats at this venue, Niall McGinn's close-range finish just before half-time, which had cancelled out Kris Commons' opener, gave Aberdeen hope of their first league point here since 2004. Indeed, were it not for Fraser Forster's fingertip save onto the post from another McGinn strike with three minutes left, it might even have been all three. But the most recent dramatic episode of the late, late show - featuring substitute Derk Boerrigter, with his first goal for the club, and Kris Commons - put an end to all that.

It was a timely intervention from the Dutchman, whose first few months in Glasgow have been thwarted by an ankle injury - enough to leave Neil Lennon, the Celtic manager, agonising over pitching the former Ajax player into duty in Tuesday night's crucial Champions League encounter against AC Milan, another occasion in which patience may be crucial. Further promising injury news for the club's supporters resides in the fact that James Forrest should be available after pulling out of Scotland duty with a hamstring problem, as should Anthony Stokes, who sat out yesterday in the stands with an undisclosed family problem.

"The subs made a difference, particularly Boerrigter who gave us that extra thrust down the left," said Lennon. "The reason we gave him some game time was to make a contribution on Tuesday, but whether he starts or not will be another thing.

"Anthony had a personal family issue and we felt and he felt he wasn't in the right frame of mind but he should be okay after the weekend," said Lennon. "James Forrest will be fit, Stokesy will rejoin us on Monday and we gave Mikael [Lustig] 20 minutes so he will be fresh. We will be very strong coming into the Milan game."

Forster's save, diving fully to his right to palm McGinn's goalbound volley away on the bounce, after Josh Magennis had caught Izaguirre napping, will become a footnote in the story of this season, but it didn't seem like a detail at the time. The goalkeeper's belated introduction to the England team might not have panned out as planned but this was the kind of watchful goalkeeping which took him there in the first place. It also airbrushed any concerns about his contribution to Aberdeen's first goal, when a well-worked set piece routine saw Calvin Zola beat him to an Andrew Considine header, allowing McGinn to knock in from close range.

"There's only a few goalkeepers could make that save and he's one of them," said Lennon. "I thought he could maybe have come for the goal, however if there is any blame to be attached, he's certainly redeemed that with a world-class save."

It was also a mixed afternoon for the custodian in the other goalmouth. Jamie Langfield recently signed a two-year contract extension, but he was clearly culpable in the hosts' opening goal. Having made his mind up to punch Emilio Izaguirre's looping cross away, he only succeeded in presenting it to Commons, who guided a right-footed volley into the unguarded net.

By the second half, however, any blame heading in Langfield's direction had largely been forgotten. While he was only a spectator as Georgios Samaras struck the post following a 60-yard pass-of-the-season contender from Charlie Mulgrew, he expertly tipped away a low Commons shot, and was unfortunate with both late goals. First Boerrigter was on hand to convert from close range after Langfield could only parry a point-blank Virgil van Dijk header, then he defied a fine running shot from Samaras only for the ball to present itself to the lurking Commons.

When the dust had settled, Abedeen's misery was compounded by the fact they had dropped to fifth in the table, leaving manager Derek McInnes to console himself with the fact that the meeting of Scotland's de facto 'big two' had largely lived up to the billing. "It wasn't quality that beat us and I mean that with all due respect to Celtic," he said.

"They have loads of quality players and they are all here because they are winners. It was their determination to get the ball over the line which beat us."