Celtic’s Leigh Griffiths celebrates winning the Scottish Premiership with his children.
AFP/Glasgow
Celtic underlined their credentials as champions with a 1-0 defeat of Aberdeen at Pittodrie yesterday to move 14 points clear of their opponents at the top of the Scottish Premiership.
The Dons, desperate to make amends for last weekend’s defeat by Dundee United which handed the title to Celtic, had the best of the early chances as the runners-up looked to restore some pride.
However, it was Celtic, who fielded a strong side despite already having secured their fourth successive Scottish championship, that made the breakthrough in the 49th minute with a move started and finished by captain Scott Brown.
Substitute Lawrence Shankland missed a glorious chance to equalise when he sent a diving header inches wide for Aberdeen in the dying moments as Celtic completed a clean sweep of victories over the Dons this season.
“I think it was a good game of football,” Celtic manager Ronny Deila said. “In the first half there was a very high tempo and two good teams.
“In the second half we scored the first goal and we defended well. We should have been more clinical but I am happy to win.”
Meanwhile Aberdeen boss Derek McInnes had no complaints about his players’ efforts but lamented their finishing.
“I thought we asked questions of them initially, we had good periods of pressure and we worked their goalkeeper,” he said.
“I can’t fault the players as they worked extremely hard to get the right result for us today, but we’ve missed good opportunities to get on the score sheet.”
Celtic made a couple of changes for the match as Darnell Fisher was handed his first start of the season, while Australian international Tom Rogic, who hadn’t played for the Hoops since November 2013, was a surprise inclusion on the bench.
The Dons formed a guard of honour for the Hoops as they made their way on to the pitch, but that was to be the last show of respect for the visitors as Aberdeen had the best of the early chances.
Barry Robson smashed a left-foot shot narrowly wide from 25 yards before Mark Reynolds failed to divert another long-range effort from the midfielder on target.
Ash Taylor then sent a header wide from Niall McGinn’s corner as Aberdeen continued to threaten going forward.
Stefan Johansen beat the offside trap to race on to Emilio Izaguirre’s through ball in the 37th minute, but the player of the year saw his chipped effort saved by Aberdeen goalkeeper Scott Brown.
Fisher then flashed a shot just over the bar as the Hoops began to come alive at the end of the first half.
Celtic took the lead in the 49th minute with a goal started and finished by Brown.
The Celtic skipper dispossessed Robson on the edge of his own box before playing the ball out and racing forward to join the counter-attack. The ball eventually worked its way out to Stuart Armstrong who cut the ball back from the by-line for Brown to tap home from a couple of yards out.
McGinn then tried to immediately reply for the Dons, but the Northern Ireland international blazed the ball over the bar from a tight angle.
Dons keeper Brown then made two solid saves in quick succession as he stopped Leigh Griffiths effort before blocking the rebound from Kris Commons.
