| Match Pictures | Matches: 1997 – 1998 | 1997-1998 Pictures |
Trivia
- This was the second evening game in a row.
- Jonathon Gould signed a new 3 ½ year contract to July 2001 as a reward for his performance since coming in on a short term deal.
- Harald Brattbakk had been signed and was due to arrive in Glasgow.
- Regi Blinker was back from suspension, but Wieghorst was still suspended. Annoni was out with a back injury, O'Donnell had an ankle injury, Thom was out and Tommy Johnson was not fancied.
Review
Celtic were third in the league at this point in the season Aberdeen had not won for 9 matches and had won only four games all season and propped up the League table. Aberdeen started well but Larsson got a goal before half time and Jackson a second in the second half.
Teams
Aberdeen: (4-4-2)
Leighton; Smith, Inglis, Kombouare, Anderson; Kiriakov (O'Neil, 58), Glass (Miller, 74), Bernard, Rowson (Gillies, 58); Jess, Dodds.
Bookings: Smith, Bernard (Aberdeen)
Celtic: (3-5-1-1)
Gould ; Stubbs , Rieper , Boyd ; Blinker, Mahe, Burley , Lambert, McNamara ; Jackson (Donnelly , 90); Larsson .
Non Used Subs: Hannah , McKinlay.
Scorers: Larsson (40), Jackson (73)
Referee: M Clark (Edinburgh).
Attendance: 16,981
Articles
- Match Report (see below)
Pictures
Stats
| Aberdeen | Celtic | |
| Bookings | 2 | 0 |
| Fouls | 15 | 10 |
| Shots on Target | 7 | 6 |
| Corners | 5 | 10 |
| Offside | 4 | 3 |
Jackson keeps Celtic ticking along in title race with comeback goal
The Scotsman 10/12/1997
Aberdeen 0
Celtic 2 Larsson (40), Jackson (73)
COMEBACK man Darren Jackson threw down the gauntlet to Harald Brattbakk and any other Celtic striker aiming to be the main man in Wim Jansen's plans when he scored the clincher in his side's victory at Aberdeen last night.
Brattbakk flies into Glasgow tomorrow with the billing as the man who will carry Celtic's title hopes with his goal threat.
But it was Jackson, in his first full game since August following his return from brain surgery, who issued a timely reminder to Jansen of his prowess in front of goal.
Jansen observed that Jackson was entitled to feel satisfied with his first full game since August. "Obviously, Darren would have liked to have come back into the team even quicker. But we felt it was right to be patient and to give him more and more of an opportunity.
"This time we said okay, now you can play from the start."
The Scotland striker admitted that he'd scored few goals in his career as pleasing as the one which sunk Aberdeen. "From a personal point of view I feel very happy and you could probably see that from the way I overcelebrated," he said.
"It was what I'd call a forward's goal – the kind I don't score enough of. I followed in the shot, picked up the rebound and took it round Jim Leighton."
As far as his own situation is concerned, Jackson was told by the surgeon who carried out the brain operation that his fitness would be a significant factor in a speedy recovery.
"The most important thing was that the operation was a total success," he said. "In all honesty it was the same Darren Jackson out there as before."
Alex Miller, the Aberdeen manager, pinpointed his side's lack of "game intelligence" as the factor which had led to their defeat. He explained that the poor supply of passes to the forwards after his team went a goal down was unacceptable.
Miller, though, will not buy for the sake of it. "We must get players in who are better than those we've got," he added.
Whether Brattbakk can live up to his big reputation in the coming weeks will be scrutinised by more than just those who do homage at Parkhead. But one player, who arrived in the east end of Glasgow almost unnoticed – £60,000 buy from Bradford, Jonathon Gould – promises to be Wim Jansen's best bit of business this term.
Though he could have sold programmes in the second half, goalkeeper Gould deserved the accolades as his side's man of the match for the string of saves which denied Aberdeen an early goal. Celtic, in truth, had been lucky to go in at the break a goal up, with Henrik Larsson's 40th minute counter against the run of play.
Gould was first called into action in the tenth minute when Eoin Jess released Billy Dodds with a first-time pass and though the striker cleverly angled his shot, the English-born Gould responded smartly by blocking the ball.
Again Dodds was to be denied by the Celtic custodian, when after running onto Ilian Kiriakov's pass to beat the offside trap, the goalkeeper was able to take the sting out of the shot and Alan Stubbs did the rest with a clearance off the line.
Nor was there anything wrong with the goalkeeper's reactions when he glimpsed a snapshot from Stephen Glass, which flew 25 yards and dipped at the last possible moment, but he still made a fingertip save.
The under-21 star tried Gould again following a good pass from David Rowson, but even with a deflection off Marc Rieper, the goalkeeper was equal to it.
By way of reply, Jackson had tested Leighton with a snapshot in the 32nd minute. Otherwise, Celtic created little of note until Larsson, who had had a scare early on in a clash with Jim Leighton, scored his 14th of the season in the 40th minute after poor defending from the hosts.
Blinker started the move down the left and Stephane Mahe did well to join in the attack before firing a left-foot cross into the box. The ball was heading for Craig Burley until Leighton diverted it to the back post where nobody picked up Larsson and the Swede drove a low shot into the corner.
Gould showed he was human after all, in the second half, when he fumbled Glass's 35-yard shot but he deserved the luck which went his way, with Dodds not being up with the play to equalise.
Despite his earlier heroics, Gould had to give way to Jackson when he stole the Celtic fans' hearts with his 73rd minute goal. Blinker's tepid shot was spilled by Scotland goalkeeper Leighton and his ex-Hibernian team-mate Jackson capped a fine comeback by scoring his first goal since 23 August.
- Manager Interview
Wim Jansen post match
“Both the points on offer and the result were very important for us and I am delighted with our performance, especially in the second half.”
“The last part of the first half we played very well and all of the second half we didn’t give Aberdeen so many chances but created plenty for ourselves. “Darren Jackson put in a good performance and I like it when everybody plays well because, although it’s harder for me to decide who should play, it makes the actual game easier