Bread and butter wins can buy Celtic and Nancy time to cook

Whilst we’re accustomed to comfortably beating Aberdeen at Celtic park, this victory was greeted with a massive sigh of relief.

Celtic needed the three points to keep in touch with Hearts, but also to put a full stop on a historically bad run of form.

Job done in that sense.

There’s not much more we can take from it though.

Wilfried Nancy lives to fight another day.

It’s hard to tell if Aberdeen being down to 10 men from the 44th minute did Celtic any favours.

Benjamin Nygren is a strange player for Celtic.

He set us on the way with a tap in, after some fine rotation on the left hand side.

His eighth of the season since joining in the summer.

So often he is at the heart of positive play, but so often the final touch and pass is off.

Moments later, Dylan Lobban was left with little choice but to pull down Daizen Maeda, who was closing in on goal.

The Dons defender was rightly sent off.

Celtic had shown verve and sufficient skill, in slicing Aberdeen open throughout the first half and the game looked like a formality from here on in.

In the second half Celtic quickened the tempo.

Chances came thick and fast and Mitov in Aberdeen’s goal performed heroics.

As did the bar and post.

Up to this point, we were witnessing the best of Nancy’s blueprint as Celtic peppered the Aberdeen goal.

Rotations in the wide areas looked fluid.

The number 10s combined with the two central midfielders, to constantly pick apart the opposition defence.

All that was missing – as in midweek – was a clinical striker.

Jonny Kenny had missed glaring chances in the first half.

Around the 65th minute, Celtic were in cruise control.

Or so we thought.

This is where Nancy’s Celtic tenure will maybe fall down.

An innocuous turnover of possession in the middle of the park and instantly, Celtic looked fragile.

There were numerous gaps in the team’s structure and one pass was enough to put Aberdeen in on goal.

Bilalovic slotted the ball calmly under Schmeichel to make it 1-1

Disaster loomed large at this point and it was lost on no one what defeat could mean.

How Celtic had found themselves in this position was ridiculous but in keeping with the calamity of the previous fortnight.

Despite his glaring mistake by Mitov in the first half, the Bulgarian performed heroics in the Aberdeen goal and set his side up for what looked like, an inconceivable draw.

Engel’s arrived late to meet a superb cross from Tierney but again the frame of the goal came to Aberdeen’s rescue.

The breakthrough eventually came though.

A dangerous ball from Colby Donovan flashed across the goal and was incredibly missed by Yamada and Maeda, only for it to be met by Kieran Tierney, to nod home at the back post.

Wing-back to wing-back, academy graduate to academy graduate.

The relief was palatable but Nancy still looked frustrated.

This game should have been out of sight.

Still though, beggars can’t be choosers.

Moment later the flourish came and the Frenchman could finally smile.

It was another fine goal from Celtic, and hopefully the type we’ll see more of.

Celtic enjoyed 70% of possession and 10 shots on target in a slick and encouraging attacking display.

Celtic vs Aberdeen – live score, predicted lineups and H2H stats

The wood work was struck four times in the second half alone.

It could and should have been 5 or 6 for Celtic.

If they had hung on to that point, things may have would have been very different for Nancy.

Thankfully for him, Celtic got the job done.