NEITHER of the managers in the Celtic Park dugouts here are likely to win a popularity contest with their club’s supporters any time soon, but at least Neil Lennon has earned a little respite as his side’s 1-0 win over Aberdeen brought up their fifth win on the spin.

This resurgence of course will be too little and too late for the title race, and certainly for a great many Celtic fans whose minds have long been made up on their manager. All he can do is keep winning games, and hope that will be enough to win over hearts and minds.

As long as he has David Turnbull, he may have an outside chance of doing just that. The former Motherwell man scored his eighth of the season to settle this early on, with a low strike from long-range that was so pure that the ball barely spun in the air. He has been the one real consistent light in the darkness that has enveloped Celtic’s season to date, and he is the man Celtic should build around as they look to find their way back out.

As for Derek McInnes, it is difficult to know what this loss will mean for him. A narrow loss at Celtic Park, where they had some bright spells, is no cause for concern in isolation. Florian Kamberi and Fraser Hornby looked quite bright in attack, and there may just be a seed of a partnership which could flourish there for the Dons.

The wider context though hardly allows time to allow such things to be nurtured. McInnes needs goals now, with the blank here giving him the unwanted record of being the only Aberdeen manager to have watched his team fail to score in six consecutive games.

They have now won just one in their last 10, and their home match against Kilmarnock which is sandwiched by their two quickfire visits to Celtic Park looks to be hugely significant, both for their chances of making the top three and for McInnes’s future.

Given their goal drought, it was perhaps a surprise that the visitors made just one change from their goalless draw with St Mirren, and that it was to throw in an extra centre-back in Ash Taylor.

This proved a game too far for 35-year-old Celtic captain Scott Brown after his recent run in the starting XI, dropping out to be replaced by Ismaila Soro. Stephen Welsh returned from injury to replace Shane Duffy beside Kristoffer Ajer in defence, and Albian Ajeti came back in up front with Ryan Christie going over to the right and Tom Rogic dropping out.

The Swiss striker did very little before being replaced by Rogic just after the hour though, and worryingly, it is difficult to see exactly what he offers to Celtic even this far into his first season at the club.

The hosts as a whole were dominant from the off though, routinely bypassing Aberdeen’s disjointed attempt at a high press, but coming up against a packed penalty area when they advanced towards the area. With the visitors seemingly caught between two stools, there was plenty of room for Celtic to operate in between the boxes.

So it was that a little under a quarter of an hour in, Scott Bain released the ball through a gaping hole between the Aberdeen attackers and sent Callum McGregor scampering away, who in turn helped it on to Turnbull. Seeing the mass of bodies backing off him towards the edge of the box, he decided to employ the hammer rather than the scalpel, crashing away a low shot from 25 yards that zipped past Joe Lewis and into his bottom right-hand corner.

The vast majority of traffic was still travelling towards the Aberdeen goal, but they had a couple of counter punches to remind Celtic they still had the appetite for the fight, Dean Campbell doing brilliantly to get to the byline before flashing a ball across goal, and then Kamberi cracking a Turnbull-esque effort of his own from 25 yards off the face off the post with Bain struggling to get down.

Those were the end result of a better period for the Dons just before the break, but Turnbull fed Odsonne Edouard in the inside left position with the striker opening his body and bringing a good save from Lewis, before Turnbull himself had another effort deflected just wide to round off the half.

The man of the moment had a great chance not long after the break as McGregor streaked away from Ross McCrorie and picked him out with the cutback, but this time Turnbull’s effort was blocked by some desperate Dons defending.

The game became a bit of a battle after that with Aberdeen taking a more direct approach, which is perhaps why Lennon sent for Brown with 20 minutes left to man the barricades. And there was indeed something of a Dons siege as the visitors shelled high ball after high ball into the area late on, with Ajer in particular standing up to it well.

So, another welcome win for Celtic and Lennon, with the sack race one contest that he will be happy enough to fall behind in.