Christmas cheer? Not here
Santa was at Celtic Park yesterday, but there was not a lot of festive cheer and goodwill to all men around. (Inset from top) Sam Cosgrove was sent off, Leigh Griffiths and Lewis Ferguson clashed and Neil Lennon had words with Dons No. 2, Tony Docherty.
Celtic made it ten league wins in a row as Aberdeen’s Sam Cosgrove was sent-off for the second time against the champions.
Aberdeen boss Derek Mcinnes slammed the decision and claimed that Parkhead boss Neil Lennon agreed with him.
The striker’s red card was the main talking point of a game where his team-mates nearly did enough to earn themselves a point.
And things “nearly” happening was central to the debate about whether or not Cosgrove should have even been penalised for a tackle on Kristoffer Ajer just after Celtic had taken the lead.
Dons’ boss Derek Mcinnes was adamant his man was harshly treated.
The incident came just after Ajer had produced a clean sliding tackle on Aberdeen’s Jon Gallagher.
He got up to move forward with the ball and was stopped in his tracks by Cosgrove. The Englishman was off the ground and out of control.
There was no damage done to the Norwegian and Mcinnes insisted that was the most important thing.
He said: “The referee had a good game but it’s a poor decision.
“People have already put it in the same bracket as Ryan Porteous of Hibs’ tackle, but it’s nothing like it.
“Porteous clearly made contact with the player. I’ve watched Sam’s 50 times and he’s won the ball cleanly.
“If he goes in at speed and hits the player, you can understand the sending-off.
“It’s a brilliant tackle. He probably doesn’t need to go in as quick, but he gets it cleanly.
“Big Ajer was laughing and winking
at him lying on the ground. There was nothing wrong with the boy, he carried on.
“If Sam hits Ajer at that speed, then Ajer’s hurt. He’s clearly not hurt. It’s a brilliant tackle.
“I’ve just spoken to Lenny and the first thing he said to me was that, no way was it a red card.”
Neil Lennon didn’t emerge after the game to give his view in public.
Celtic assistant John Kennedy said: “When you fly in at that speed, and there is a form of recklessness about it, you give the referee a decision to make and in his eyes it was a red card.”
Aberdeen’s Scott Mckenna spoke in general about the type of challenge made by Cosgrove.
He said: “You’ve seen it happen numerous times, players being sent off for taking the ball, but just the pace they’ve gone in at.
“If you can’t win it, or you need to use excessive speed to get there, then just don’t tackle. Stand up, try and delay them.
“I think it’s too easy to go flying into tackles, take the ball and just say, ‘I won the ball’.”
Cosgrove was sent off on his debut for Aberdeen for a tackle on Scott Brown.
The Celtic skipper clearly hadn’t forgotten and goaded his opponent as he trudged off.
That led to a minor exchange between several players.
Ce l t i c completely dominated possession early on and Christopher Jullien opened the scoring by hooking the ball in from a corner.
However, the home side then found it difficult to breach the red wall that stood between them and more goals.
It seemed like Neil Lennon’s men wanted to walk the ball into the net at times and that allowed their opponents to come up with a series of blocks and last-ditch tackles.
Most of the game was played in the Aberdeen half and Edouard was guilty of being overly elaborate in front of goal.
Co s g r ov e equalised when he produced a towering leap to head in a cross from Mcginn.
Some observers compared it to the sort of hanging jump that often comes from Cristiano Ronaldo.
The 23- year- old won’t be worth as much as the Portuguese superstar but this was his 20th goal of the season and several clubs are watching him closely.
Celtic’s winner was a fabulous finish by Odsonne Edouard.
Ajer ran at the defence, Christie set-up the Frenchman and he sent the ball roaring past Lewis.
Christopher Jullien always had faith that his fellow countryman would hit the net.
He laughed: “I said to him at halftime, ‘Don’t worry, man, you’re going to score’. I told him at the end that he should probably have had five or six.
“But he knows his strengths and we really trust in him.”