It's Grim Up North- Aberdeen 0 Celtic 1

Must be a pain being an Aberdeen fan. I mean going from the heady heights of the early 80's to seeing your ex heroes turning up, to their former stomping ground, and turning you over with relative ease. Worse of all, with teams from the west that you were lead to despise by old red eyes.

For all Celtic huffed and puffed yesterday, the gulf in class was plain for all to see. As GS says players win games, not formations or tactics. Again it was left to quality to win the game for us.

Jan Vennegor of Hesslelink showed he has the John Hartson knack of doing sod all during the game, but he will turn up and put the ball in the back of the net. His goal was a half chance, the sort of chance we created all day, and showed that the big fellow could be priceless for us over the next few months.JVoH was well marshalled by the impressive Russell Anderson, Zander Diamond and Scott Servin so much so that i'm struggling to remember him winning a heider against any of them during the game. His link up play was disjointed and there was no connection with Magic or Miller.

Partnerships take time to form and with JVoh being a stick on starter then Magic and Miller will have to improve if either one of them are to stake a starting claim.

So much so if Craig Beattie finds any sort of fitness and learns to play close to big Jan, something Magic and Miller haven’t done yet, in fact Magic was that far away from him he was almost in Dundee, he could benefit from Magic’s loss of form and Millers lack of goals.

But JVoH scored and thats what he is paid to do. It was also his 1st away game in Scotland and he looked like he was blowing out his arse at the end of it. Adjusting to the pace of our game and also his new team mates, is probably a fair excuse for disjointed but in the end productive performance.

Talking about new team mates, i thought Tommy G was going to run the game after his explosive opening 25 mins. He was everywhere, charging around with his barrel chest puffed out, his bald naiper getting in folks faces and a wee step over trick that Aiden would be proud off. His lack of 90 mins over the last 18 months showed as he drifted from the game before the end, but that is understandable.

It was also a hard place for both JVoH and Tommy G to make their away debuts for the Hoops. A place even though we have a good record there we always seem to get it hard.

Aberdeens tactics of flooding the midfield- there tactics made Lenny a passenger for long spells- and sitting back are probably something both men are used to as Real Madird and PSV are probably no strangers to opposing teams using those tactics.

The main thing for both will be getting up to the pace of the game and understanding the limitations of their team-mates. Once they get both these attributes correct then they will be big players for us.

You would expect JVoH and Tommy G to look out of sorts, but they didn't look as out of sorts as Magic and Naka. Both these players know the score of Scottish football now, so away trips should come as no suprise to them. This season both are struggling to find form and i have a nagging doubt that Naka has been found out by opposing managers.

Naka has been getting shutdown quickly and getting hit early doors. This seems to be effecting his game and yesterday i was wondering how poor he would have to be before he would get the hook. For all his creative merits he was a passenger and wasn't contributing at all as the game was drifting to a 0-0.

Since Naka was a passenger it was left to Aiden, again, to be our most creative force. It’s a big ask for the bhoy, but he is rising to the task, even when the lack of options makes him hold on to the ball one tackle too long. Naka really should be helping Aiden but especally in the last few away games Naka, like the rest of the team, has been found wanting.

Magic, is this the same player that finished last season? Is the fact that he now has strike partners that move throwing his game plan out the window? Lack of confidence has grabbed the man from Poland, which could have a grave effect on him. Him and Miller will be slugging it out and on current form and posture Miller gets a shot at starting next week.

Overall it was a decent enough performance in a difficult away game. Lack of chances is still a worry but our ball retention and play from the back to the front is ok, but a little laboured at times.

Gary Caldwell, again for the 2nd week in a row was our best defender and seems to have grown in stature and now looks competent at domestic level. Big Mick again also showed he is competent at domestic level and both our CB showed courage and team player spirit by playing with injuries.

On Saturday we had the bulk of possession and were the hunters. On Wednesday night we become the tight unit and the hunted.Players win games as does quality.

"Who the F*ck are Man Utd" sang the impressive away support yesterday. I fear we are about to find out.

Hail Hail