Sutton secures the points

Scottish Premier League: In the game of leap-frog at the top of the Scottish Premier League it was Celtic's turn to go back to the top. Rangers, who make their own trip to Pittodrie this Sunday, had hoped to stay in pole position longer than a day given that Aberdeen have beaten Celtic in both of their last two meetings but such dreams proved forlorn.

The Dons never came close to reaching the heights of their performances and a dismal encounter was won by Chris Sutton goal midway through the first half.

It was a scrappy effort as Sutton took a pass from Stilian Petrov and sent in a half-hit shot that deflected off Phil McGuire past Ryan Esson.

It was almost as if it happened in slow motion but that was a feeling prevalent throughout an undistinguished game.

"I was very disappointed with our first-half efforts especially," admitted Aberdeen manager Jimmy Calderwood who gave two of his new signings - Jamie Winter and Thorarinn Kristjansson - a little piece of the action.

He may also recruit Richie Byrne from Dunfermline soon although a bid to take Barry Nicholson from his old team appears doomed with the two clubs' valuation of the player falling miles apart.

Calderwood certainly needs new faces, and he admitted: "Celtic would have come here expecting a harder game than they got. "We were pushed all over the place and although we were a bit better in the second half we never really troubled Celtic. You can't just play a team of their calibre for 45 minutes."

Celtic, meanwhile, were no great shakes either but manager Martin O'Neill was happy enough. "Delighted, in fact," he said. "We played some very decent football in the first half and then I knew after Jimmy would have had some words during the interval that we would be pushed back a bit.

"But we restricted Aberdeen to very few chances at Pittodrie and that was very pleasing." There was none of the drama and excitement usually associated with this fixture and precious little football on show either.

Both teams contrived to be sloppy and careless and the visitors' victory was simply down to the fact that they were marginally less so than Aberdeen.

Certainly chances were few and far between. Juninho, given a rare start although unsurprisingly substituted later, had one and, at the end of the first half, a decent drive from Sutton was cleared off the line by Zander Diamond.

Dons had a Noel Whelan shot held by Rab Douglas, making his third consecutive appearance for Celtic after a spell in the reserves. After the interval, following the substitution of Winter and Steve Tosh for Derek Adams and Phil McGuire, a penalty claim for handball against Ulrik Laursen was correctly turned down by referee Kenny Clark.

There was not a lot in terms of entertainment for the 17,051 fans to enjoy. For 60 seconds in the second half, the temperature of the game briefly rose above tepid, resulting in bookings for Chris Clark of Aberdeen and Celtic's Bobo Balde, who may well now turn his attentions to a move to Fulham or Manchester City.

O'Neill, however, insisted: "Discussions on a new deal with Bobo are on-going and we want him to stay. I also don't think we're too far away. I think I'm right in saying he has declared he would like to stay if everything was right so we have to make him as attractive an offer as we can and hope it can be resolved."

ABERDEEN: Esson, Anderson, Diamond, McGuire (Winter 52), Hart, McNaughton, Adams (Tosh 52), Heikkinen, Clark (Kristjansson 75), Whelan, Mackie. Subs Not Used: Ilic, Stewart, Foster, O'Leary. Booked: Anderson.

CELTIC: Douglas, McNamara, Balde, Laursen, McManus, Juninho Paulista (Camara 76), Petrov, Lennon, McGeady (Wallace 90), Hartson, Sutton. Subs Not Used: Marshall, Lambert, Lawson. Booked: Balde. Goal: Sutton 24.

Referee: K Clark (Scotland).