Celtic failed to arrest a period of concerning recent form as two points were dropped at Pittodrie.
Neil Lennon would ring the changes as we switched to a flat back four and brought Rogic in from the start with Ryan Christie also returning to first-team action with Stephen Walsh and Scott Brown dropped.
Alas for 45 mins it was as you were from previous displays with the team lacking any drive or creativity and then to cap that all off Olivier Ntcham gave away a penalty for taking down Lewis Ferguson which the young midfielder duly converted two mins before half time to give the home side the lead.
In the second half Celtic upped the ante and Callum McGregor scored a fabulous equaliser after a wonderful one-two with Rogic and you felt like the tide was turning.
That was until a calamitous piece of defending from Shane Duffy down the right flank who bizarrely tried to backheel the ball back under winger Scott Wright rather than simply shepard it out which resulted in the Aberdeen wide man robbing him and eventually setting up Ryan Hedges to score.
All seemed lost but then Leigh Griffiths came on and fashioned a wonderful equaliser on 76 mins before we then somehow went 3-2 up only two mins later thanks to a Christie penalty after Elyounoussi had been downed in the box by Tommie Hoban.
It was a fist-pumping moment and one that made you feel like we were back but rather than push on we tried to defend what we had as Aberdeen refused to give up the ghost and they got their rewards via a second penalty on 92 mins after McGregor – who had been committing fouls galore in the last 15 mins – stuck out a trailing leg to take out Connor McLennan in the box.
Ferguson stepped up and converted once more with Scott Bain – in from the start for the injured Barkas – not even moving.
So that was that.
Three games without a win and a nightmare fixture list coming up before the international break starting on Thursday night with us away to the in-form French side Lille before then meeting Aberdeen again next Sunday in the rescheduled Scottish Cup semi-final at Hampden from last season.
By kick-off against the Dons next week we could be nine points behind Rangers – albeit with two games in hand – and then face Sparta Prague at home in the Europa League before visiting an improved Motherwell side.
Even after the break, we’d be coming back against third-placed Hibs away before visiting Prague.
On the pitch Shane Duffy’s nightmare form continues and he looks completely devoid of confidence whilst Albian Ajeti and Mohamed Elyounoussi continue to produce little up the other end of the pitch.
There has been a clamour from a section of the support to get Olivier Ntcham into the starting eleven but he’s been given plenty of game time recently and always underwhelms.
Jeremie Frimpong failed to get much change out of ex-Celt Jonny Hayes yesterday though even when he does get to to the byline the end product is rarely worthy.
Laxalt looks energetic and hungry down the other flank but his final ball is also wanting.
Off the field it there is some talk that Odsonne Edouard could be back in for Thursday night and that Elhamed and Bitton might even be back to training this week.
Getting the Edouard and Griffiths double act that swept so many teams aside in the second half of last season back is an exciting prospect and the two Israelis would give us an option to replace Duffy who clearly needs a rest but is a first pick right now due to lack of options.
The schedule domestically in December is much kinder with us facing six games that we should be winning with four at home but there’s a long way to get there and we desperately need to start putting results together right now.
Otherwise we could be out of two competitions and a mile behind Rangers in the league with it all to do.
We can clearly find the net easily enough but it’s keeping it shut at the other end which is a big issue as eight goals conceded over the past three games tells you.
Some of the online racket amongst a section of the support looking for Neil Lennon to be fired I found a bit absurd.
Ultimately we’re only two points worse off than we were last season after eleven games but the next five weeks are pretty huge for him and he needs to start getting it right or the pressure will grow and grow.
....Always A Tim! 