With Dave King taking the huff over Celtic fans partying at Ibrox hoops fans made the most of their trip to Aberdeen.
Hitting the road before 10am on Boxing Day isn’t much fun but with a title to be won and excitement growing in the north-east and down Ibrox way Brendan Rodgers’ side needed all the backing that they could get.
Away days this season haven’t been much fun but all of their Christmas’ arrived at Pittodrie yesterday for the fans lucky enough to have a ticket.
Happy St Stephens Day ???? pic.twitter.com/QrKn9nS6WL
— Stephen Roberts ???? (@Roberts1521) December 26, 2018
Aberdeen 3 Celtic 4. The young team learn “If you’re good enough, the referee doesn’t matter”. pic.twitter.com/MdVKzeqFcl
— RaisedOnCeltic (@Raised_OnCeltic) December 26, 2018
Scott Sinclair got the game off to the perfect start before Willie Collum and some dodgy defensive work threw Aberdeen a lifeline accepted by Stevie May.
The second half saw almost total Celtic possession but it took the introduction of Odsonne Edouard to swing the game Celtic’s way. One fantastic pass behind the Dons defence set up James Forrest with Sinclair perfectly positioned to restore Celtic’s lead.
Collum then excelled himself by gifting Aberdeen a second penalty, when Sam Cosgrove’s penalty hit the back of the net BT Sport’s ‘As It Stands’ league table had the hoops in second place.
Against Hibs just a fortnight ago the commitment of the Celtic players could have been questioned- at Pittodrie there was no doubting which team had the desire to succeed. Sinclair and Edouard combined to restore Celtic’s lead, not even a 90th minute strike from Lewis Ferguson could deny the travelling support full points.
As the final whistle blew the significance was obvious, Brendan Rodgers and his players took the salute of the support with the result reverberating all the way to Ibrox.
Shortly into their journey down the road there was more good news as Hibs equalised at Ibrox. This season’s league race will be highly significant with the Christmas period going a long way to deciding where the title will go, it looks like Rodgers’ squad are starting to leave their competitors trailing.