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Celtic earned their first victory in five matches as they held off a late Aberdeen surge to defeat the Dons 2-1 at Parkhead in their Scottish Premiership clash yesterday. |
The Hoops, inspired by the inclusion of captain Scott Brown in the starting line-up as he returned from injury almost a month ahead of schedule, made an impressive start with Jason Denayer giving them a seventh-minute lead.
The Glasgow giants added to their advantage seconds into the second period when a Kris Commons strike took a wicked deflection off Shaleum Logan on its way past Jamie Langfield.
Celtic were dominating but a lack of concentration in defence allowed David Goodwillie to pull one back with his first goal for the Dons on the hour mark. The goal handed Aberdeen the momentum and both Niall McGinn and Willo Flood saw efforts stopped by Craig Gordon as Celtic held on for their 19th consecutive home league win over the Dons to move into fourth spot.
“We should have killed the game much quicker than we did but I think there were spells in the first half when we played at a very high level,” Celtic manager Ronny Deila said. “We need to be more clinical but the fitness has to get better. I am delighted that we won and that we played good football.”
Meanwhile, Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes was disappointed his side didn’t get anything from the match. “We came here expecting to win and I thought we were good enough to go on and win,” McInnes said. “However, our deficiencies in conceding goals and not scoring enough goals has culminated in the result and I have no complaints.”
The Hoops, who handed debuts to new signings Aleksandar Tonev and Stefan Scepovic, hadn’t won a match since August 16 but any nerves in the home side were soon settled when Denayer handed them the early lead.
The ball broke to Efe Ambrose from a Commons corner and the Nigerian’s volley smacked off Denayer and then the bar before it crossed the line.
Commons should have put Celtic further in front in the 11th minute when he got on the end of Emilio Izaguirre’s cross but the forward sent his header wide from six yards out.
