ABERDEEN ENDED A run of 25 straight league defeats at Celtic Park to hold off Rangers and finish second to Celtic in the Scottish Premiership with a 1-0 away win on Sunday.
Andrew Considine smashed home the only goal of the game two minutes into the second-half to inflict Brendan Rodgers’s first home league defeat in two seasons at Celtic manager.
Victory for the Dons meant they finished three points clear of Rangers, who trailed 3-0 and led 5-3 before drawing 5-5 in an incredible match with Hibernian at Easter Road.
Failure to finish second means former England and Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard will have to negotiate four rounds of qualifiers just to make the Europa League group stages when he takes over at Ibrox next season.
Celtic had won all nine previous meetings with Aberdeen since Rodgers took charge and the Northern Irishman named a strong side just seven days before the Glasgow giants attempt to win back-to-back domestic trebles for the first time when they face Motherwell in the Scottish Cup final next weekend.
However, with the league long since won, Celtic produced a lacklustre display on the day they got their hands on the Premiership trophy.
Aberdeen made the breakthrough early after the break when Kenny McLean, in his final game for the club before joining Norwich, teed up defender Considine to drill low past Scott Bain.
Rodgers showed his priority was on the Cup final as he replaced highly sought after duo Moussa Dembele and Kieran Tierney shortly afterwards.
And Aberdeen held out to seal second place for a fourth consecutive season despite Rangers’ remarkable fightback at Easter Road.
Hibs needed to win by six goals to leapfrog Rangers into third in the table and were halfway there inside 22 minutes through Florian Kamberi, Scott Allan and Jamie McLaren.
But in their chase for goals, the hosts left themselves woefully exposed at the back as James Tavernier, Jordan Rossiter and a wonderful Bruno Alves free-kick levelled before half-time.
Jason Holt and Josh Windass then put Rangers into a 5-3 lead before McLaren pulled a goal back and Holt was sent-off to set up a grandstand finish.
McLaren then completed his hat-trick in stoppage time to deservedly share the spoils of a 10-goal thriller.
