Glass gets the mind games started early with Brown devilment

It was fascinating to witness Stephen Glass’s first press conference as Aberdeen manager and hear him speculate – something he described as “a bit of devilment” on his part – over whether Scott Brown will play for Celtic at Pittodrie in midweek.

Glass took the opportunity to indulge in some early mind games before the league fixture on Wednesday

by pondering whether Celtic interim manager John Kennedy would put Brown “in the position” of playing against Aberdeen, the club he joins in the summer as player-coach.

As a good student of the game, Glass pointed out that it had been done before – when Charlie Nicholas played for Aberdeen against Celtic in the 1990 Scottish Cup final.

Indeed, the bold Charlie scored one of the penalties which saw his side win the shootout 9-8 after a 0-0 draw over the 90 minutes plus extra time.

Nicholas had already re-signed for Celtic, although it had not been officially confirmed.

It will be interesting to note the Aberdeen fans’ attitude to Brown in midweek should he be involved in the match.

Unless he scores an own goal, it’s unlikely they will cheer him the way Celtic fans did in the last league game of the 200607 season, when he played against them for Hibs having already signed for Gordon Strachan's title winners.

Not only was Brown committed enough to feature, he also scored the last of his 13 league goals for the Easter Road club in a 2-1 win.

And, for good measure, he even got involved in a set-to with future teammate Darren O’dea.

Glass is probably right when he says he can imagine Brown “smashing” Aberdeen players over the head on Wednesday.