Nope. Not yet.
Another significant disappointment for all those waiting for Aberdeen’s bubble to burst.
Impressed though they may have been with the Dons’ winning run to begin the campaign, plaudits were generally tempered with the caution that they had yet to face either of last season’s top two.
It was not an entirely unfair point to raise. It is one thing wearing down teams who are largely in defensive mode, another to resist the pressure of an expensively assembled opponent pushing for a win of their own.
But, it turns out, this Dons side is equally adept at either. Indeed, if anything, their two outstanding halves of the season have been delivered in its most challenging circumstances: the second period against Celtic, which they got the better of 2-0; and the first here, which should have had the same outcome.
The swagger of Jimmy Thelin’s red swarm in that opening half was arresting; unlike anything Pittodrie has ever seen in this fixture. As at Parkhead, Aberdeen simply acted like they were an equal or better team, which so few in Scotland can ever bring themselves to do.
To those familiar with how the SPFL habitually works, the double whammy of Jamie McGrath’s timid penalty and the visitors’ eventual equaliser looked like the softening up before the knockout blow. That reckoned without Aberdeen‘s new-forged steel.
Absorbing that physical and emotional punishment, before storming upfield and reclaiming their destiny – led, once again, by their bombing full-backs and a reborn Shayden Morris – was an incredible and stirring show.
Of course, someday, Aberdeen will lose a game of football, as surely as the seasons must change. But rarely is there such a momentous shift between seasons as there has been between the stark winter of Aberdeen’s desperate 2023/24 and this glorious spring.
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