Pressure on Lennon

dominant from the off though, routinely bypassing Aberdeen’s disjointed attempt at a high press, but coming up against a packed penalty area when they advanced towards the area. With the visitors seemingly caught between two stools, there was plenty of room for Celtic to operate in between the boxes.

So it was that a little under a quarter of an hour in, Scott Bain released the ball through a gaping hole between the

Aberdeen attackers and sent Callum McGregor scampering away, who in turn helped it on to Turnbull. Seeing the mass of bodies backing off him towards the edge of the box, he decided to employ the hammer rather than the scalpel, crashing away a low shot from 25 yards that zipped past Joe Lewis and into his bottom right-hand corner.

The vast majority of traffic was still travelling towards the Aberdeen goal, but they had a couple of counter punches to remind Celtic they still had the appetite for the fight, Dean Campbell doing brilliantly to get to the byline before flashing a ball across goal, and then Kamberi cracking a Turnbull-esque effort of his own from 25 yards off the face off the post with Bain struggling to get down.

Those were the end result of a better period for the Dons just before the break, but Turnbull fed Odsonne Edouard in the inside left position with the striker opening his body and bringing a good save from Lewis, before Turnbull himself had another effort deflected just wide to round off the half.

The man of the moment had a great chance not long after the break as McGregor streaked away from Ross McCrorie and picked him out with the cutback, but this time Turnbull’s effort was blocked by some desperate Dons defending.

The game became a bit of a battle after that with Aberdeen taking a more direct approach, which is perhaps why Lennon sent for Brown with 20 minutes left to man the barricades. And there was indeed something of a Dons siege as the visitors shelled high ball after high ball into the area late on, with Ajer in particular standing up to it well.

So, another welcome win for Celtic and Lennon, with the sack race one contest that he will be happy enough to fall behind in.