Aberdeen 1-3 Celtic

Celtic showed great courage and fighting spirit to come from behind at Pittodrie to return to the top of the SPL table. On a miserable day in Aberdeen, Gordon Strachan would have been thrilled of the way his team responded after conceeding the first goal against his former club. The victory, Celtic seventh consecutive away win of the season now opens up a monumental 17 point gap over arch-rivals Rangers.

Celtic manager Strachan made three changes from the side that lost to Dunfermline last weekend. The trio of Ross Wallace, Shunsuke Nakamura and Maciej Zurawski replaced the injured duo Mo Camara and Chris Sutton, while Alan Thompson was benched following his poor form. Aberdeen boss Jimmy Calderwood was also forced into making changes. He brought in Winter and Andrew Considine for Darren Mackie and Russell Anderson. His inspirational captain suffered a migraine in the dressing room prior to kick-off and so was late withdrawal.

Celtic enjoyed early dominance and Zurawski had the first effort of the match. The Polish International tried to lob Ryan Esson but his effort flew over the crossbar. Chris Clark was then winded by a powerful Nakamura fre-kick. The referee made a bad error in judgement by stopping play as Celtic were in an advanced position. This was a poor error and could have been costly in the final outcome of the match.

Aberdeen were offering very little going forward and their only effort of the first half came from a set-piece. After Bobo Balde hauled down Richie Byrne, former Celtic winger Jamie Smith gave his old club a scare coming very close to finding the target. But his effort swerved wide of the Boruc's goal.

Moments later Zurawski was gifted the best chance of the half following Zander Diamond's poor back header. The striker should have scored when clean through but his final effort was tame and easily saved by the grateful Esson.

As the half time whistle blew Celtic were very comfortable as the Dons had been more than happy to sit back and allow Celtic alot of possession in deeper areas. However the game rattled into life after the break when Aberdeen took the lead from a set-piece on 53 minutes. Barry Nicholson teed up late replacement Winter whose right-foot drive flew past Artur Boruc and into the bottom corner of the net. It was a brilliant strike but the celtic wall left alot to be desired and Petrov's untimely slip as he charged the shot didn't help.

But Celtic's response was swift and deadly as they were level only a few minutes later. After good build-up play, Balde's shot ricocheted off an Aberdeen defender and fell to the in-form McGeady who rifled the rebound superbly into the top corner. It was the Irish International's third goal in five games following his re-call to the side.

Soon after Celtic went ahead. Esson failed to hold Hartson's stinging shot and Petrov pounced on the loose ball to side-foot into the empty net. Hartson showed great body strength to hold off the Aberdeen defence but this was the Welshman's only real contribution to the game.

As Aberdeen became increasingly frustrated Smith was booked for stupidly throwing the ball away. Shortly after the hour-mark Telfer turned the screw when he scored a goal straight off the training ground. After a short corner, McGeady dummied the ball allowing it to run into Telfer's path. The Englishan skipped past the challenge of Scott Muirhead before drilling a low right-foot shot past Esson and into the far corner for his first Celtic goal. It was a superb strike and was suprisingly Telfer's first goal in three years.

Substitue Maloney then almost scored the goal of the season. A brilliant piece of individual skill sliced the Dons backline wide open. But after running from the half-way line his final effort was weak. It was a disappointing end to a fantastic passage of play.

Esson was fortunate only to be booked in injury time for handling outside his area as Adam Virgo tried to round the keeper. The keeper clearly denied Celtic a goal scoring opportunity but due to the circumstances and time of the offense the referee was lenient and and only showed a yellow card. Celtic came close to finishing the game in style but Nakamura's free-kick just missed the tareget. However the game was won and the Bhoys were back where they belong.


Aberdeen (3-4-3):Esson, McNaughton, Diamond, Considine, Byrne, Nicholson, Winter, Clark, Muirhead, Crawford, Smith.

Subs:Langfield, Mackie, Dempsey, Stewart, Foster, Baas.


Celtic (4-4-2):

Boruc

Telfer Balde McManus Wallace

Nakamura Petrov Lennon McGeady

Zurawski Hartson

Subs:Marshall, Maloney, Thompson, Virgo, Pearson, Agathe, Lawson.

Att: 17,031.