SPL Thursday January 2nd 2003

Aberdeen 1

Celtic 1

1:0 Winters (58 pen); 2:0 Mackie (90)

Att:16,331

MIB: mike McCurry

Celtic: Hedman; Valgaeren, Balde, Mjallby; McNamara, Lambert, Petrov (Smith 78), Sutton, Thompson; Hartson, Larsson (Fernandez 35, Maloney 88)

A taste of life after Henrik was served up on a bitter day at the Hill of Dung , where Ebbe Skohvdal's shade of a football team looks to have been blown away by the incumbent Steve Patterson.

The Sheepies actually managed a game of it and could have been two ahead in the first twenty minutes but for a poorly timed run from Mackie early on and a swift intervention from Balde, after a long ball caught the Sieve dithering. This seemed to clean out the excesses of the festive period and a neat interchange between Hartson and Larsson saw Henke nutmeg Preece, only to have his goal disallowed for offside. Cue cries of, 'And tonight Matthew I'm going to be a linesman' and all the associated abuse which followed. Amazingly, Grampian Police did not see the need to intervene.

On the half hour mark Larsson did his bit again and put Celtic one up, after Hartson and Sutton skewered the Mutton mens hind quarter , letting Henke pounce. Cheers on the terracing soon died away as it became obvious that Larsson had taken a blow to the head in the process of scoring. As tumbleweed blew across a silent Pittodrie, he went off.

Bleak mid-winter set in, as Celtic appeared to loose focus at the prospect of missing their talismanic Swede. The Dons didn't buckle with the goal and the loss of Larsson only seemed to inspire them. Old campaigners began to reminisce about Napoleon's retreat from Moscow as a Bobo header was cleared off the line and Fernandez missed a another golden chance. Upset at Pittodrie was written all over the chip wrappers, as rabid hacks washed TFOD back into a three point lead on a river of bile.

An equaliser for the Dons looked inevitable, as the Sieve looked increasingly befuddled. Mjallby and Hedman appeared more like Turnips than Swedes as the equaliser went in.

Only then did Celtic rally, but scoring looked unlikely, despite a good 25 yarder from Thompson.

There were two horrendous misses, one again from Fernandez, whose confidence looks to have gone south for the winter, the other form Hartson in injury time, which was a howler put over from 12 yards. Celtic looked jaded and, without Henrik Larsson, vulnerable. O'Neill needs to rally the troops and infuse fresh blood before TFOD run further away.