‘Celtic win the league at our place? We are not going to let that happen’

It has been 32 years since Pittodrie hosted a title-clinching party and there is certainly no appetite among the Aberdeen players to see that scenario repeated this week.

Celtic will travel north on Saturday in pursuit of the single point they still require to wrap up an eighth consecutive league championship 
triumph.

Not since 1987, when Rangers secured their first Premier Division crown under Graeme Souness with a 1-1 draw at Pittodrie, have an opposition side celebrated becoming champions in the Granite City.

An Aberdeen side still with their own agenda of trying to hold on to third place in the Premiership and ensure Europa League football next season are determined to extend Celtic’s wait to pop the champagne corks this season.

“We know Celtic can win the league at our place on Saturday and we are not going to let that happen,” said Aberdeen full-back Max Lowe.

“The last thing we want to see is another team celebrating the title on our ground. We don’t want to see that at our place. Fair play to Celtic, they have had a good season but we are going to do our best to make sure that does 
not happen.

“So we are not going to let them win the league easily at Pittodrie on Saturday. We need to be clinical in both boxes to try to get the win we want.”

On-loan Derby County player Lowe believes Aberdeen will also be motivated by a desire to make up for their poor performance in losing 3-0 to Celtic in the Scottish Cup semi-final at Hampden earlier this month.

“Yes, it would be like a little bit of revenge for us,” he added. “It’s important to go out on a high this season and I always try to look on things in a positive light. We want to beat Celtic at home because we want that third spot and it would be massive for us.

“We’ve got three games left in the league and know what we need to do. It would be nice for me to go back to Derby having played a part in Aberdeen qualifying for European football next season. A club like this needs to be in Europe.”

Aberdeen have to lift themselves after the disappointment of Sunday’s 2-0 defeat by Rangers at Ibrox. In addition to conceding two contentious penalties for challenges on Rangers defender Nikola Katic by Lewis Ferguson and Andrew Considine, they suffered another injury blow with the loss of midfielder Connor McLennan.

“We are not really getting any luck with injuries and suspensions,” said Lowe. “We’ve got a lot of senior players out injured just now – I had to play on the left wing against Rangers – and now Andy Considine will be suspended for the Celtic match. I’m not sure what we will do in terms of the starting 11 but we have got some players close to coming back. We have got a good squad so hopefully we will be okay.

“Sunday was frustrating, especially as we got to half-time at 0-0 and were well in the game. For the first penalty, I thought Fergie got tripped initially and he was unfortunate not to get the foul. I didn’t think it was a penalty but it was a hard decision for the referee to make. But for the second penalty it was a 50-50 challenge in the air and I felt it was a soft penalty.

“Even at 1-0, we always felt we had a chance of getting something out of the game. Joe Lewis saved us a few times and showed why he is one of the best goalkeepers in the league. He performed really well and we always hoped we could nick a goal but it was made more difficult for us when Andy was sent off.

“Do I feel we have had a lot of big calls going against us this season? Yes and it’s a shame because we want to be right up there with Rangers and Celtic.”