Aberdeen’s title bid suffered a blow tonight when Derek McInnes’ side lost 1-0 away to Hamilton Accies.
A sixth minute penalty from Alex D’Acol gave the home side full points, denying the Dons the chance to move to just a point behind Celtic.
Now the Dons face the prospect of kicking off against Celtic trailing by seven points if the hoops win at Ross County on Wednesday night.
Aberdeen travelled to Lanarkshire as strong favourites after beating both Kilmarnock and Ross County 4-0 in their previous SPFL outings as well as booking a place in the final of the Betfred Cup.
In contrast Accies had drawn their three previous matches against Partick Thistle, Kilmarnock and St Johnstone but their win tonight lifts them into the top six of the table ahead of the five match card tomorrow night.
As well as putting the pressure on for Saturday’s match with Celtic tonight’s defeat gives Hearts and St Johnstone the chance to leapfrog the Dons if they win their matches tomorrow night.
Aberdeen did have a few appeals for penalties but were unable to put the Accies defence under any real pressure as three points slipped by.