Dons Red-y for Bleating Celts

That is the Aberdeen team that last played at Celtic Park, that is the team that beat Celtic 2-1 to end their unbeaten run. It contains eight players that are no longer first-teamers at Pittodrie, arguably nine if you include Foster. Many regulars (including a whole defence in McNaughton, McGuire, Anderson and Diamond) were missing through injury that day.

This piece of factual information makes Celtic's hard luck sob stories this week hard to swallow. There is barely a newspaper that does not contain the word "crisis" when reflecting upon poor wee Celtic's injuries in the lead-up to Wednesday night's encounter with a virtually full-strength Dons. Yes, Celtic have a large injury list. However they also have vast riches of squad depth and finances that the rest of the SPL can only dream of. It is doubtful whether fans of the other clubs in Scotland are mourning Celtic's injury tragedy.

Thankfully, Aberdeen seem to be ignoring this red herring and getting on with the preparation for an Old Firm double-header that has less pressure than usual due to a tremendous start to the season. Saturday's great comeback proved to Aberdeen fans that Calderwood's Dons have a major difference from Steve Paterson's team: bouncebackability. Plus it has left the Pittodrie side 4 points clear of the chasing Edinburgh clubs. Any result against the Old Firm clubs would be welcome, but frankly wins in Glasgow are not a priority at the moment. Good performances are paramount to keep the players' confidence up for the truly vital fixtures coming up at home against the likes of Hearts and Dundee United.

As Derek Adams said on Saturday, "we do have a difficult schedule coming up as we also play Hearts and Dunfermline at home after the Old Firm games and we will get a true picture of the progress after that." The fact that Adams' eyes are on the fixtures after the Old Firm back-to-backs shows the importance of them by comparison. While there is no doubt that wins in Glasgow would be tremendous, the Aberdeen team seems to know what are the really important fixtures.

Celtic will put out a team on Wednesday that will be capable of beating any team in the SPL, particularly at Celtic Park. Martin O'Neill is not stupid either: he will have the players wound up to beat us after we spoiled their party last season. However, this Aberdeen team have the goods available to get something out of the game, even if it is just plaudits for their performance.