WHILE I am confident that if Celtic turn up against Aberdeen at Hampden on Sunday they will ultimately prevail, it would be disrespectful to Derek McInnes and Aberdeen to suggest that it won’t be a hard match.

After losing the League Cup final of 2016 so timidly, they haven’t allowed that to happen again in their subsequent two finals against Celtic at Hampden, giving it a right go before losing out to Tom Rogic’s last-gasp winner in the Scottish Cup final of that same season, and then staying in the game for a long time in this season’s League Cup final.

So, Celtic will certainly have to be on their game to win, and it is unlikely that having had those past experiences, the Dons will be daunted about coming to Glasgow to face Celtic.

After all. they have put Rangers out of both cups in the city this year, once at Hampden at once at Ibrox, so they will have no fear ahead of the game.

McInnes is an astute manager, and will set his team up well, and he will be trying to stay in the game as long as possible while hoping that the likes of Niall McGinn can come up with something at the other end.

I just see the extra quality that Celtic possess in terms of their individuals being enough to get the win.

That’s not taking away from Neil Lennon’s abilities as a manager either, and I’m sure he will have it drilled into the Celtic players that if they aren’t on their mettle, and if they let their standards slip at all, then Aberdeen are certainly a dangerous enough side to bring the recent spell of domestic dominance to a crashing end.