Well, it was a close call but we emerged triumphant, and generally speaking, it was not a bad £13.99 to give to Red TV, even though there was the odd transmission hiccup. Not for the first time, however, I was glad to hear the full time whistle!
However we must resurrect the old phrase “naive defending” to describe the loss of the two goals. In the first one, why was the man allowed to be standing on his own waiting for a cross? Then the second goal. For a time I thought Shane Duffy was still with us. It was deja vu from last season with a man going up for a header unchallenged and our defence left looking stupid. This really must be worked on, Ange! What is so very difficult about “takin a man apiece”?
Our Japanese bhoys did not play well tonight. Hatate fouled rather too often and Maeda should have scored with that header in the first half. I could almost hear Chris Sutton saying “He has to score”! Perhaps it was just too cold for them. There can be fewer places colder than Aberdeen in February! They were rightly substituted, and kept for another day, but I would have liked to have seen Tom Rogic on a lot earlier. Perhaps that might have happened if we had had to chase the game.
Jota remains a class act, and took both his goals well. O’Riley probably had a bit of luck with his deflection but Celtic were so much on top in that first half that you felt we could have scored any time they wanted. We wilted a little under pressure, and one or two players, notably O’Reilly and Abada, disappeared for a while and for about one minute I thought we were going to throw it all away until we ran up and scored what proved to be the winner.
Aberdeen have improved from the first half of the season, and really should be a lot higher in the League than they are. They deserve credit for making a game of it tonight when they looked dead and buried at half time.
Our Aberdeen commentators, Mark Reynolds in particular were clutching at straws trying to get the winning goal chalked off for offside. And as for their attempt to manufacture a penalty! Not even Willie Collum would give that one! And “Celtic are always lucky with referees”… Not everyone would agree with you there, Mark!
To her credit, the girl didn’t totally go along with that, and didn’t you just love that rustic, Doric accent that she had! And Rob McLean (I remember when he looked a lot younger than that) tried manfully to convince everyone that he had supported Aberdeen all this life.
And so we head home with 12 League games to go and still one fragile point ahead. It promises to be an interesting spring, but now we turn our attention to the Scottish Cup and Raith Rovers with all their self inflicted problems. Do not take them too lightly, Celtic. They have a few good players. Let tonight be a lesson that you can take nothing for granted.
David Potter
“clutching at straws trying to get the winning goal chalked off for offside”… Wow! Was Bitton not offside? Did he not interfere with play? Why can’t you just admit you got lucky and it should’ve been chopped off. Pretty sad really.
Aberdeen were caught napping and now claiming offside even the commentators adament it was offside.
Sour grapes & rose tinted glasses is all I can say.
Excellent goal & excellent game of football.
SHas the Sandman got lost on his way from Aberdeen?
Sandman is up now, traffic coming out of Aberdeen last night was terrible, roadworks down at the harbour…