Party delay is Dons’ sole motivation

RYAN JACK hopes Celtic enjoyed their title celebrations at Tynecastle — because the Aberdeen captain is determined to puncture the party atmosphere at Parkhead tomorrow.

A nine-point deficit combined with a vast gulf in goal difference means the Pittodrie side were effectively ruled out of title contention last weekend. Ronny Deila and his players savoured the 3-1 win over Hearts that left only an arithmetic asterisk against a fifth successive title.

That will be removed by one more point, but Jack insists the Dons travel south with plentiful motivation of their own.

Accounting for two of Celtic’s three league defeats this season has already delivered a significant improvement on last term, when they lost all four meetings between the clubs.

Now Jack hopes to delay formal confirmation of the champions’ coronation by ending Aberdeen’s sequence of 21 straight league defeats at Parkhead.

‘You see the pictures of them celebrating in front of their fans because they were presuming it was over,’ said the midfielder.

‘We didn’t see the TV pictures of their after-match celebrations (against Hearts) but through the week you see the pictures in the newspapers and hear people telling you how they celebrated. There was nothing we could do about that — it was out of our hands.

‘All we can do is stay focused. But it is in our hands on Sunday and we can do something about it this time.

‘There’s all this hype with the prospect of the league being decided on Sunday. But we’re going into the game on the back of a good result and week’s training, so there’s nothing for us to be afraid of.

‘We want to go into the game and ignore all the talk of a title party and if you beat any team in the league three times in a season it would be a good achievement.

‘I don’t think there is such a big gulf between the sides but in certain games when we’ve had the chance to maybe get ourselves ahead we’ve not managed to take it.

‘There are always changes in the summer — players will come and go — and, hopefully, the new recruits make us stronger and give us a good push for next season.’

Top scorer Adam Rooney’s thoughts are already focused on next season as a recurrence of his thigh injury means he won’t play again in this campaign.

It will be the last time Derek McInnes comes up against Deila before he leaves Celtic in the summer, with the Norwegian 5-2 up in the meetings so far.

The Aberdeen manager insisted his much-maligned opponents deserve praise for securing another Premiership success.

‘Celtic deserve credit for the fact that they have lost just three games in the league this season,’ said McInnes.

‘They have had a lot of criticism and they probably haven’t got what they wanted from the campaign as they spoke about a domestic Treble and the group stage of the Champions League.

‘That’s where they have fallen short in that respect, but to only lose twice to us and once to Motherwell in the Premiership mirrors the sort of form of teams who win titles.

‘We said we wanted to beat last season’s points tally and sustain a longer league challenge by getting closer to Celtic and we have probably achieved that.

‘However, not so long ago, we were putting the demand on for a bit more and that’s why it is disappointing we haven’t made this game as significant as it could have been.

‘The vast difference in the resources means you would have expected Celtic to win one of the cups and get to the group stage.

‘That’s where the demand is different for a Celtic manager but their league form has been fine.

‘I watched their first half at Tynecastle last Saturday before we prepared for the Motherwell game and I thought they were excellent.

‘They have done that time and time again in the league and it is not easy to keep winning matches, so their manager deserves credit.’