From the moment when Cameron Carter-Vickers was ironically cheered by the Red Shed after successfully completing a backpass to his goalkeeper – something he failed to do a week ago against Club Brugge – to the lusty tackle Kevin Nisbet put in when ransacking Alex Valle, this was tumultuous stuff. Only a minute had been played and skin and hair was flying.
Steady rain and regular aggro. On the radio gantry, the great Willie Miller smiled, wistfully. An old school scrap. Toe to toe. Where else would you rather be?
Some might tell you the most beautiful sound in the world is birds chirping, leaves rustling, a fire crackling. On evenings like this, it was a touch more fundamental. An Aberdeen tackle – legal or otherwise – brought a cacophony. Sweet music.
A couple of minutes in, Kyogo Furuhashi went haring away into space deep in the Aberdeen half, the inexperienced goalkeeper Ross Doohan his only obstacle to a possible opener.
Total commitment from both men meant a brutal collision. Kyogo, blameless, clashed with Doohan’s head and it was worrying. The goalkeeper stayed down awhile. Replays showed the extent of the dunt.
Kyogo, touchingly, stayed with him all the time. You thought Doohan’s day was done but he picked himself up and carried on.
In the days of Dimitar Mitov, Doohan’s time on the pitch has been limited, but he was good on Wednesday night. Durable after the Kyogo incident and inspired at times later on when Celtic started to pile on the pressure.
The Dons dug in. They weren’t all that threatening in attack, they didn’t cause Kasper Schmeichel a whole pile of trouble until the closing minutes when they were chasing like madmen, but they were dogged against the champions, they made a fight of it against an attacking force that put six on them the last time they played.
Celtic always suggested that a goal was coming. Towards the end of the first half they had a series of corners, vicious deliveries whipped in from the beach end.
Paulo Bernardo scored directly from one of them, but it was correctly ruled out when Daizen Maeda was seen to have backed into Doohan. Alistair Johnston was a few feet away from connecting with another, a touch probably being enough to break the deadlock.
The jostling amid all this was intense. No quarter asked, no quarter given. It wasn’t pretty, but given the lousy conditions and the bearpit nature of the contest, it was compelling.
