Aberdeen came to Glasgow on Saturday hoping to turn back the clock. They did, but not to the era they intended. Instead, time became the enemy of Mark McGhee and his team, with digital displays on Celtic Park’s giant screens acting as their instruments of torture.
The last time Aberdeen had beaten Rangers and Celtic in consecutive weekends was 30 seasons ago as Sir Alex Ferguson led them to the title. McGhee played alongside Steve Archibald, who scored the winner at Celtic in the winter of 1979 as Aberdeen announced the shift in power in Scottish football.
After defeating Rangers a week earlier at Pittodrie, McGhee must have harboured hopes that the other half of the Old Firm could be overcome. However, the Aberdeen manager was stripped of that optimism by a vibrant Celtic performance that also seemed like a throwback to the past.
There was a hunger in Celtic’s play that echoed the Martin O’Neill days when five and six goals a game were regular returns for the audience in the east end of Glasgow — and Aberdeen were usually on the receiving end. McGhee is clearly no Ebbe Skovdahl — his victory over Rangers proves that — but even he confessed to a feeling of insignificance as Tony Mowbray’s team swept his aside.
“At the end, I was looking at the clock and wanting the game to finish,” McGhee said. “It could have been four or five and it felt like four or five.” Eight would have been a true reflection.
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Jamie Langfield produced five top-class saves in a second-half siege and when the Aberdeen goalkeeper was beaten, the post came to his aid to deny Landry N’Guemo’s solo run and then Ricky Foster conjured up a goalline clearance to keep out Niall McGinn’s clever chip.
At the core of it all was Aiden McGeady. The winger tore Aberdeen to shreds with every run and created both second-half goals for Georgios Samaras, the latter coming from an audacious 30-yard pass over the visitors’ defence, which was deprived of Jerel Ifil by that stage, after the centre-back was dismissed for a violent kick at Samaras.
Foster, who was Aberdeen’s best outfield player, began the day at right-back, switched to the left to confront McGeady and ended it firefighting in Ifil’s position. “It was hard enough with 11 players,” the captain said. “When the red card came out, I looked up at the clock and it was 62 minutes. I knew we were in for a long half-hour. Celtic were already into their stride and it was even tougher for us with ten men.”
Foster’s pace saw him given a central marking role a week earlier at Pittodrie when he helped to frustrate Kris Boyd and Kenny Miller. The Aberdeen captain’s close scrutiny of the Old Firm’s title credentials left just one verdict. “I would say Celtic are favourites,” he said. “They are the best team we’ve played this season.”
The movement of Mowbray’s players was central to the way Celtic played, especially the two full-backs, Andreas Hinkel and Danny Fox. In the first half, Mowbray habitually yelled at Hinkel if the right-back set foot in his own half and that demanding streak yielded a reward in the 40th minute when the Germany player was so advanced he was able to gather a diagonal pass from Marc Crosas and whip over a low cross that was swept into the net by the boot of Scott McDonald.
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It was a moment when Mowbray’s vision of the brand of football he wants from Celtic and the reality fell into perfect harmony. The Celtic manager, who is fed up with the sniping he has received from sections of the media, might have been entitled to fashion a response of “I told you so”, but instead he stepped back from hyperbole.
“There have been times when the results have not gone for us but I have sat and talked about the performance of the team and the chances we create,” Mowbray said. “You need to take chances and today we scored three but you are never totally satisfied as a coach.”
Foster later defended his team from charges of ill-discipline after Ifil’s red card saw him become the club’s fifth player to be sent off in five weeks.
That escalating crime count could signal a fine from the SFA, whose mood towards Aberdeen is already coloured by criticism on the club’s website this season towards referees, and a subsequent attack by Willie Miller, the director of football, on the standard of officials.
Foster does not believe that the flurry of red cards for McGhee’s side is in response to Miller’s comments and McGhee did not dispute Ifil’s punishment, branding the defender’s straight red card for kicking out at Samaras as “reckless and stupid”.
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“I do not think we have a disciplinary problem,” Foster said. “The boys in our dressing room are not overly aggressive or lashing out. Jerel is not prone to doing something like that but it does look that way, I suppose, with five red cards in recent games. I am sure the manager will look at it himself and talk to us about it. We maybe need to cool things a little bit.
“I do not think the referees have paid any attention to what was said by the club or Willie Miller. They come into each game with a clean slate. I do not think they are holding grudges. Some of our cards might be soft but some are correct under the laws. Jerel says he didn’t mean much by it but if he raised his feet, then the referee is entitled to send him off.”
Celtic (4-4-2): A Boruc 6 A Hinkel 8 G Caldwell 7 G Loovens 7 D Fox 8 A McGeady 9 M Crosas 8 L N’Guemo 8 B Robson 8 G Samaras 8 S McDonald 8. Substitutes: M-A Fortun? 4 (for McDonald, 67min), N McGinn (for McGeady, 79), Z Zeng (for Samaras, 79). Not used: L Zaluska, S McManus, G Carey, P Caddis.
Aberdeen (5-4-1): J Langfield 8 R Foster 7 J Ifil 4 A Considine 4 C Mulgrew 5 M Ross 4 P Pawlett 4 D Young 4 G McDonald 5 M Paton 4 L Miller 4. Substitutes: F Fyvie 4 (for Young, 53min), C Maguire 4 (for Paton, 60), D Grassi (for Fyvie, 90). Not used: S Nelson, D Mackie, T Wright, S Duff.