Dons beat Celtic again

Aberdeen 2 | Hayes 40′, Rooney 45′

Celtic 1 | Forrest 61′ (Van Dijk sent off 12′)

SPFL Scottish Premiership | Pittodrie | 7.45pm | FT | Att: 16,634

Match Summary:

Aberdeen ended Celtic’s unbeaten run at Pittodrie as goals from Hayes and Rooney sealed a fantastic 2-1 victory over the champions.

The Dons lead Celtic by two goals to nil at half time after a pulsating first half. The visitors were reduced to 10 men early on when Pawlett skipped past Van Dijk and the Dutchman brought the Dons attacker down. Referee Thomson had no hesitation in showing the red card. It was Celtic though who dominated possession for the next 10 minutes but the Dons gradually got more and more into the game.

5 minutes before half time, Jonny Hayes unleashed a magnificent shot from 25 yards past Forster and into the back of the net to give The Dons the lead. And they had only to wait for 4 minutes before a second goal arrived- this time a fantastic cross from Niall McGinn was headed into the net by Adam Rooney to give Aberdeen a 2-0 lead at half time.

After the break, Celtic again had plenty of possession but failed to create too many chances and rarely tested Jamie Langfield. However they eventually got themselves back into the game on 61 minutes when James Forrest capitalised on uncharacteristically poor defending to fire the ball home. The game continued in the same vein for the remainder with lots of possession for the visitors but The Dons held on to record a second victory over Celtic in a month.

Aberdeen team | Langfield, Logan (Anderson 83′), Tate (Shaughnessy 83), Reynolds, Considine, Flood, Robson, Pawlett (Vernon 90+1), McGinn, Rooney, Hayes

Substitutes not used | Weaver, Low, Smith, Vernon, Zola

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Match highlights | please click here

Derek McInnes | please click here

Jonny Hayes | please click here

Adam Rooney | please click here