Fast And Furious: An Aberdeen-Celtic Match Report

Friday May 12th: Scottish Premiership; Aberdeen 1 (Hayes 13') Celtic 3 (Boyata 3', Armstrong 8', Griffiths 11')

A frantic opening thirteen minutes when featured four goals ended with Celtic on 100 points and only two games away from completing a league season unbeaten.

Brendan Rodgers brought back the big guns for this game, with Lustig back and captain, Sinclair and McGregor both started as Celtic picked our strongest side aside from the suspended Scott Brown and injured Moussa Dembele.

Celtic started on the front foot and took the lead after only three minutes. A Griffiths corner was swung in and Boyata found space and buried a downward header into the net (0-1). Five minutes later it was 2-0. A McGregor shot was blocked by Logan and McGregor was on hand to rifle home the rebound (0-2). Three minutes later it was three for the Celts, a long range Leigh Griffiths shot going straight through Aberdeen goalie Joe Lewis (0-3). To complete an incredible sequence of events, two minutes after that Jonny Hayes scored an admittedly very good goal to make it 3-1. Phew!

The game continued to ebb and flow, and Stockley really should have made it 3-2 but headed wide. The next good chance was created by Tom Rogic, who turned and found space in the box but Lewis saved. Aberdeen then had their best spell of the game, but their only real chance was a McGinn shot saved by Gordon at point blank range.

To complete the first-half excitement, Boyata again came close to finding the net with his head and Sinclair was denied after a lightning quick Celtic break by a last gasp Hayes challenge. Half-time 3-1 to Celtic and a much needed break for all.

The second half began with an Aberdeen penalty claim, but in my opinion Craig Gordon got to the ball just before Shinnie so it was a good decision from the referee not to award the spot kick. Celtic made a change with Bitton replacing Rogic, and the game seemed to slow down, the only chance being a McLean effort for Aberdeen which he skied over the bar.

As the game slowed towards the end, a wonderful team move from Celtic ended with Sinclair curling a shot just over the bar, and after McGinn volleyed over for Aberdeen and Lewis had saved from Celtic sub James Forrest, the game ended 3-1 to Celtic, with Brendan Rodgers making the players throw their jerseys into a delighted away support.

The game was weird, as Celtic won relatively comfortably but didn't play that well for eighty minutes, yet we could easily have scored more goals, if our final ball had been slightly better. As for individual performances, the centre-halves and Craig Gordon looked shaky at times, and the game was too frenzied for Tom Rogic, but the likes of man of the match Patrick Roberts and Stuart Armstrong had fine games. We really missed the suspended Scott Brown, but thankfully he'll be back for the Scottish Cup Final against Aberdeen in two weeks time, but first of all it's off to Maryhill on Thursday to face Partick Thistle as the quest for an unbeaten season goes on.