Celtic 1 - 1 Aberdeen

Aberdeen Ul9s were back in action last Saturday after their winter break and the young Dons had another hugely encouraging result away from home to Celtic. The game was played at Celtic's new training facilities at Lennoxtown. It was the first time the Dons had played at the venue.

Like Jimmy Calderwood today Neil Cooper had a few selection headaches as he had a number of central defenders missing including Jonathan Crawford who was with the first team, Rogvi Holm and Stirling Smith - three very influential players for the team. Ryan Jack did return after a long layoff and although he had to play at right back (he is a midfielder) he had a very good game. Ryan is a real talent and everyone will be delighted to see him back. Scott Ross was partnered in central defence with Sammy Stewart who was also playing out of position and Chris Gallacher filled in at left back.
Pawlett, Fyvie and Clark were the midfield trio with Megginson, McRobbie and Low playing on the left side of a front three.
Last time out Aberdeen had drawn away from home against Hibs who are top of the league and unbeaten so they went into the game today full of confidence. They started well and took the lead after only eight minutes. A free kick was played in and fell to Nicky Low. Nicky had a shot which the keeper fumbled and Mitch Megginson reacted first to fire the ball home. Aberdeen then dominated the game and created a number of good chances but were unable to take any of them.

The second half was more even but Aberdeen continued to have the better of the possession but were unable to get a second goal. They were made to pay for not killing off the game when with 7 minutes to go Celtic equalised. From a free kick the ball eventually fell to Graham who powerfuly fired the ball in from close range and his rising shot gave keeper Bain no chance.
The goal lifted Celtic who had the better of it in the closing stages but Aberdeen held on for the point. Celtic had substitute Mathew Hughes sent off for a reckless tackle on Nicky Clark although thankfully Nicky saw the tackle coming and was not injured.
Neil Cooper spoke with RedWeb after the game "I am really plaeased with the performance. We played very well. Technically it was a good performance. The team's shape was very good today. Their passing was excellent as was their character. We had to go with a make shift defence but they all did a great job.
"I am disappointed for the boys that they did not get the win as we had four or five good chances to score. Unfortunately we did not get that second goal when we were on top and paid the price.
"We now have a couple of difficult games coming up against Rangers and Dundee Utd but if we keep playing like that I will be happy."