SPL: Whyte critical of ‘ungentlemanly’ Celtic

Aberdeen captain Derek Whyte expressed his disappointment with Celtic’s ‘‘ungentlemanly conduct’’ after the 2-0 win over the Scottish Premier League leaders at Pittodrie.

Robbie Winters and Darren Mackie scored the goals which earned the Dons their ninth successive home SPL win.

But their joy was tempered by the dismissal of defender Whyte after he received a second caution following a clash with Bobby Petta.

But the former Celt was philosophical about his sending off which will rule him out of the game with Dundee on Boxing Day.

‘‘It was a second bookable offence. The linesman on the far side said it was for threatening behaviour,’’ Whyte said.

‘‘But I just wanted Bobby Petta to kick the ball out of play. I thought it was ungentlemanly conduct.

‘‘It happened a couple of times today where I thought they could have given the ball back.

‘‘But that is sometimes the way it happens and that’s Scottish football for you.

‘‘I just have to get on with it. We have got a couple of games coming up so hopefully I can get back playing again.’’

Whyte joked: ‘‘I’m going to have a couple of beers now because I’m suspended for Boxing Day.’’

But Whyte was delighted to have created the club record of nine straight SPL home wins.

Whyte said: ‘‘It was a fantastic day. To win nine in a row at home is incredible.

‘‘You can hear the fans singing in a full house and we didn’t want to let them down today.

‘‘You hope to put your chances away against Celtic because they create so many themselves.

‘‘I still fancy them to win the league but we are going to enjoy the win tonight.’’

Celtic manager Martin O’Neill admitted striker John Hartson had held his hands up over the penalty which Winters converted to open the scoring.

But the Parkhead boss insisted the result proved the title race was ‘‘far from over’’.

O’Neill said: ‘‘I asked John Hartson in the dressing room and he suggested that it could have been a penalty.

‘‘I’m not disagreeing with that. Some of the boys thought we could have had a penalty at the other end but we didn’t.

‘‘That is immaterial. We got beaten in the game and we have accepted that.

‘‘What it does illustrate is that the league is far from over. We have only just reached the halfway stage.

‘‘We have been beaten and that can happen to any team.

‘‘Eventually, it was inevitable because you cannot just keep winning. We will go home and think about it and try to come back for Boxing Day.

‘‘We had a number of chances to equalise in the game but we didn’t take them and, overall, Aberdeen played very strongly.’’

Aberdeen manager Ebbe Skovdahl paid tribute to his side’s hard work in the win over the SPL leaders.

Skovdahl said: ‘‘We battled as hard as Celtic and the only way we had to win this game was to make sure that they didn’t score from set-pieces.

‘‘I don’t think you can win nine in a row every year but, once you get those wins, you gain confidence and it becomes a new challenge for the players.

‘‘If we hadn’t supported each other and worked hard, we would have had no chance getting anything at all from Celtic.’’