Paul Quinn's dramatic late winner against visitor’s Celtic set a club record for Aberdeen and blew open the Premiership title race. Celtic striker Leigh Griffiths gave the Parkhead side the lead in the 35th minute with a penalty. However, that was cancelled out by an Adam Rooney's spot-kick early in the second half. The scores were still level when Dons' wide-man Jonny Hayes was shown a straight red by referee Craig Thomson for a tackle on Celtic right-back Mikael Lustig. The Dons were not to be denied a welcome victory and defender Quinn's late strike from close range made it 2-1 and six successive league wins for the Dons at the start of a season for the first time The result took them two points clear at the top of the table with a game in hand against Hamilton on Tuesday.Given that Celtic won all four meetings between the clubs last season, the Pittodrie side will see this as a significant marker in the title race. Celtic would have prefered to have been heading to Amsterdam on Thursday night, for their Europa League group opener against Ajax, with a win.
There was a moment of poignancy before an enthralling game unfolded, with a minute's applause before kick-off in memory of former Dons and Scotland player Graham Leggat, who passed away recently.
Celtic almost got off to a dream start in the second minute when Andrew Considine was short with a pass back to Danny Ward allowing Parkhead midfielder Tom Rogic to pounce. But the Dons keeper blocked the shot for a corner, which a nervy looking home side defended. In the 17th minute, after Quinn had fouled Stefan Johansen 25 yards from goal, Griffiths' free-kick deflected off the wall and the bar before he volleyed the ball high over. This was the signal that he game was slowly warming up. Moments later, Considine headed a Hayes corner over the bar then failed to control a Kenny McLean cross after evading the Hoops defence. Things got worse for the defender when he pulled Griffiths back inside the box after the striker had latched on to a fine Charlie Mulgrew pass. Considine was booked by referee Thomson before Griffiths fired the penalty past Ward for his ninth goal of the season. Celtic looked assured and when Hayes' cross was missed by McLean two minutes from the break it looked like it would be another pointless afternoon for the home side when faced by the men in green and white hoops.
At the start of the second half McLean appeared to aim a kick at Lustig while the full-back was on the ground with the ball underneath him, with Thomson stepping in to calm the situation while taking no action. Moments later the official had the Dons fans in uproar when he refused to point to the spot when the ball appeared to strike Mulgrew's hand in the penalty area from a Shay Logan cross.In the 56th minute, however, Thomson did award a penalty when Celtic stopper Dedryck Boyata tumbled Dons midfielder Graeme Shinnie to the ground, with Rooney sending keeper Craig Gordon the wrong way to level the scores. The home side went all out for the winner but the game took another twist in the 72nd minute when Hayes was sent packing for his challenge on Lustig, who was immediately replaced by Efe Ambrose, with James Forrest on for Tom Rogic. There was more drama to follow, however, when Quinn got on the end of a Niall McGinn free-kick to knock the ball past Gordon and keep the three points at Pittodrie, although ultimately they had to thank Considine for clearing a Griffith effort off the line in injury-time to secure all the points available.