The smile is back at Celtic?

The smile and enjoyment came back to Celtic Park this afternoon, it's been a while since the supporters have enjoyed themselves so much, perhaps the recent trials and disappointments added to todays pleasure.

There was more than just the magic of Aiden McGeady about the performance with the 3-0 scoreline against 10 man Aberdeen not doing the team justice.

A flicker of confidence ran through the side, when Landry N'Guemo crashed through three challenges to smack his shot off the woodwork there was a special sense of excitement around the stadium.

Against St Mirren and Hapoel there had been flickers of style but they had quickly died out replaced by fear and trepidation- today, without getting carried away there were sustained spells of good pressing passing football that had the Aberdeen defence in trouble.

JUGULAR

Tippy-tappy football, passing and possession away from the last third of the park may be pleasing on the eye and excite neutrals but when a team is going for the jugular as Celtic did today the football carries an edge.

Almost every outfield player had a chance to score, both strikers found the net and almost as importantly the defence kept a clean sheet with Artur Boruc given a quiet return to first-team action.

Both full-backs had chances at goal, Danny Fox with a Roy Aiteken like first half charge and shot that was well saved then a late Sebo like effort from Abdreas Hinkel.

My only criticism was that they all seemed to want to take a touch on the ball before shooting, no-one was prepared or interested in doing things first time.

The goals were pretty special, the first being a brilliant probing pass from Marc Crosas that found Hinkel acting like a right winger with Scott McDonald burying the German's pass across goal in the 38th minute.

ARCHITECT

Six minutes into the second half McGeady was the architect with a perfectly flighted cross onto the head of Samaras that was bulleted past Jamie Langfield from eight yards out.

Aberdeen were losing their discipline with Jerel Iilfel perhaps a little unfortunate to be red-carded for a follow-through on Samaras that caught the linesman's attention, most players like to inflict some damage once a free-kick has been given, Iifel's follow through on Samaras was a bit too enthusiastic.

World Cup bound Samaras completed the scoring in the 75th minute when he finally put the ball in the net from another McGeady pass although a simple first time lob looked easier with Langfield stranded.

Predictably Tony Mowbray wasn't getting carried away by the win, he's been through a lot recently and wasn't going to start shouting the odds about his team's performance.

PERFORMANCE

He said: "At Celtic Park, we've got to be confident, and generally we are. Even through the periods where the results weren't going, that's why I say regardless of dropping points, the performance of the team was very high.

"We tried to control the game from the off, and generally did that - but Aberdeen made it hard for us, starting with five at the back.

"But we managed to get he breakthrough and got there in the end. Aberdeen have some very young and talented players, but we managed to get on top of them, which is important because they have a lot of legs and enthusiasm.

"Thankfully for us, we managed to use the quality we've got to keep the ball off them for long spells."

With Motherwell and Hearts to be faced away in the next fortnight no-one at Celtic will be crowing about turning corners just yet.

However, after the dejection of throwing away three points to Dundee United the team has shown some character and style to bounce back with three wins, keeping that run going as long as possible will only add to the players confidence.

Team: Boruc, Hinkel, Caldwell, Loovens, Fox; Robson, N'Guemo, Crosas, McGeady (McGinn); Samaras (Zhi) McDonald (Fortune)