Celtic extended their lead at the top of the Scottish Premiership to six points last Saturday only for Aberdeen reduce that to three the following day.
Flood came on as a late sub as he continues his recover from a hamstring injury, but spoke before Sunday's game about the Dons' title challenge.
And the fiery midfield dynamo was the first to break ranks from the AFC 'take each game as it comes' party line.
The two teams meet on March 1st, four months after Ronny Deila and his players celebrated wildly on the Pittodrie pitch following their 2-1 win.
And Flood - who played nine times for Celtic - told the Daily Record that the Celtic celebrations, including the embarrassingly-familiar 'Ronny Roar', prove Deila's side see the Reds as a legitimate title rival.
"They recognise it alright," said Flood. "When they beat us 2-1 in the game I got injured, with the celebrations after it you would have thought they had won the league here. It was a bit overboard. I thought: 'Wow, you obviously think we’re putting up a challenge here.'
"Celtic fear us a little bit. They can say what they want in the press, that if they do this or that then they will win the league. But up here at Pittodrie, Scott Brown was celebrating in the tunnel as if they’d won the title that day. I thought, ‘Yeah, they fear us, so let’s have a go.’
"If we play to our potential we can take them all the way. I don’t know if we’ll finish above them but we can definitely have a go," he added.