Aberdeen enhance claims to be best of the rest in Scotland

Aberdeen are now available at 8/15 to come out on top in Ladbrokes’ ‘betting without Celtic’ market after a 2-1 victory over their Scottish Premiership rivals inflicted a first league defeat of the season upon the champions-elect.

The win marked the second time in recent weeks that the Dons have been triumphant against Neil Lennon’s side following their Fifth Round Scottish Cup success at Celtic Park.

And it’s shaping up to be some season for boss Derek McInnes and his upwardly mobile outfit.

Granted, the current crop still have some way to go to merit comparisons with their Cup Winners’ Cup winning counterparts from the eighties.

But there are echoes of those glory days with the men from Pittodrie flying high at the top of the league, in the last-eight of the Scottish Cup and nearing a League Cup final date with Inverness.

Ending Celtic’s 26-game unbeaten record was no mean feat and in doing so the Dons put paid to any hopes Hoops goalkeeper Fraser Forster had of breaking Edwin Van der Sar’s UK record of 1,311 minutes without conceding.

Instead, Jonathan Hayes’ howitzer and Adam Rooney’s match-winning effort were part of a sequence that’s seen the last five domestic goals against Forster all scored by Aberdeen.

Now four points clear of third-placed Motherwell in the Scottish Premiership, fans of the club can perhaps start dreaming of European football next term, even more so if their rivals fail to turn around a run of just one win in their last five games.

Having thrashed St. Johnstone 4-0 at Tynecastle to book their place in this year’s League Cup final, McInnes’ side are 13/8 to beat Inverness in the showpiece event.

And that could be just the first step on Aberdeen’s route to securing an historic domestic cup double.

Championship team Dumbarton stand in the way of the 5/2 Scottish Cup favourites reaching the semi-finals and on current form it looks unlikely that this potential banana skin will halt the charge of the seven-time winners.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.

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