Aberdeen stop record-breakers Celtic, midweek round-up

Three games took place on Tuesday evening, due to cup and weather postponements to name but a few reasons. It saw the league’s only unbeaten record come to an abrupt halt.

Celtic travelled to Aberdeen, only a few weeks after the Dons had knocked Celtic out of the Scottish Cup. Celtic and their goalkeeper Fraser Forster were both trying to keep their records intact. Unfortunately, for both, both long-running records would come to a crashing end this night. Celtic started brightly in the opening stages, Charlie Mulgrew fired a shot low from an angle, but Langfield was fully behind it. Scott Brown also came close after bursting into Aberdeen’s box but after a few deflections around the box, Langfield held on to the ball on the line. Not long after Celtic’s night would go from looking promising, to an absolute nightmare. Peter Pawlett was played through one-on-one with Forster but before he could get his shot away, Van Dijk brought him down on the edge of the area. In turn denying a clear goalscoring opportunity and was rightly shown his marching orders. After a barnstorming opening 40 minutes, Aberdeen took the lead and put an end to Forster’s clean-sheet record. Johnny Hayes picked the ball up at least 25 yards from goal and unleashed an unstoppable right-foot shot into the top corner. Four minutes later it was 2-0 McGinn fired in a cross, which Adam Rooney attacked and headed the ball beyond Forster. The second half was all Celtic pressure as Aberdeen sat on their two-goal lead. Celtic sub James Forrest pulled one back after some good work by Scott Brown, allowing the young winger to fire his side-foot effort high past Langfield. Anthony Stokes and Samaras had long-range efforts late on, but Aberdeen held on to get a massive result in the hunt for second place.

It was a massive result because their rivals for second place Motherwell lost heavily away at St Johnstone via a 3-0 scoreline. It was all about St Johnstone striker Steven MacLean on the night, just back from a knee injury and the former Rangers and Sheffield Wednesday man grabbed two first-half goals to help his side to victory. His first came just six minutes in, he managed to get a tap-in when the Motherwell ‘keeper Nielsen had fumbled Stevie May’s shot. The second for the home side and MacLean came just before half-time. The striker latched onto Brian Easton’s cross before dispatching the ball beyond the helpless Nielsen. Motherwell did have their chances in the game Vigurs forced Mannus into a magnificent fingertip save and McManus sent his shot wide from close range, when he really ought to have hit the back of the net. It was to no avail for the Steelmen as 3 minutes from time the third goal for St Johnstone arrived. Miller ran from his own half with no challenge from a Motherwell played before finding the top corner to complete the scoring.

Inverness won the Highland derby in Dingwall defeating Ross County, which proved to be all too easy as they won 3-0 and now it leaves them just three points behind third-place Motherwell, with a game in hand. The result does Ross County no favours in their battle to avoid the relegation play-off place. It took Caley just eight minutes to take control of the game and take the lead. Doran left McLean on his backside down the left before crossing and David Raven found the back of the net from close range. James Vincent and Shinnie could have both added to the scoreline but managed to put their efforts wide. The second did come five minutes before half-time, Shinnie robbed Slew before passing to McKay to provide the finish. Ross County after the break had their best chance when Tidser forced Brill into a good save, in a game that County’s chances were rare. Doran played a lovely through-ball to Marley-Watkins to shoot low and find the bottom corner to seal all three points.