Celtic took a big step towards the title last night, and that didn’t need to be sexy.

There’s a reason something becomes a cliché.

It wouldn’t become a cliché if it didn’t have a core of truth in it.

One of the great clichés of football is that there are nights on which title races are built. Nights when you win leagues. Nights where you go seven points clear of your closest challenger with a game in hand to secure a narrow win on their home soil is the kind of game that wins leagues, cliché or not.

They made it tough last night. Aberdeen have been on a poor run, and they had to get something from the game. But I’ll tell you now that I was more disappointed in the way they played last night than I was in how they played at Celtic Park, or even at Hampden.

The Hampden result was a chastening experience for that club. Last night, they had 11 men behind the ball for virtually the whole match, except for the occasional foray up the pitch. It was a terrible football match for that reason.

The weather didn’t help either. A horrible night like that makes the way we play football very difficult indeed. But in the end, quality was always going to tell, and it did yet again. One particular decision by the manager, which I’m sure was derided at the time, proved pivotal. He took off Bernardo and brought on McGowan. People were happy about McGowan coming on; they just didn’t like Bernardo coming off because Reo hadn’t been playing at his best. But this manager knows what he’s doing, and he made the switch for a very simple reason.

If you watch the way we played prior to that substitution and then compare it to how we played after it, you’ll notice a distinct difference, not only in the number of chances we created, but in the dynamism we showed. For reasons which Brendan, I’m sure, will explain in more detail, he fielded a more compact midfield last night. Instead of the usual two attacking midfielders, he sacrificed one, bringing Bernardo back to help cover McGregor.

When he decided to gamble—bringing Bernardo off, leaving Hatate in a more advanced position, and pushing McGowan forward too—the gaps in their defence started to appear. The rhythm of our attacking play came to life. It also helped that we brought on big Adam Idah, who gave their defence more than it could handle and forced their keeper into making the save of the game.

I could go the rest of my life without seeing Don Robertson referee another match involving us. He was atrocious last night. Some of what he let their players get away with before he handed out a booking was shocking. He should have sent Shinnie off at the end. A lot of their players were just kicking us all over the park. It is what it is. He’s certainly put himself in contention to referee the final.

That was a tough game last night. Much tougher than I expected it to be.

If we’d gotten an early goal, the whole dynamic would have been different, and it could have been a trouncing. Aberdeen were set up last night in the complete opposite way to how they tried to play at Hampden, where we ripped them to pieces because they allowed us too much space.

They were determined not to make the same mistakes, and for a while, we played into their hands with the pace of our own game and the time it took us to get the ball forward. The manager’s decision to play two deeper midfielders instead of the usual two attackers contributed to that. But once he changed it, there was only going to be one winner. Leaving on Hatate, which I’m positive wasn’t a popular choice at the time, looks inspired in hindsight.

Yeah, it’s a cliché. So what? These are the nights that win leagues. If a night that puts you seven points clear of your closest challenger with a game in hand, and 11 points clear of the side in third place, isn’t the kind of night you look back on later in the season and say, “That gave us the cushion and breathing space we needed,” then what is?

I said it in a piece the other day: a lot is going to be decided this month.

December is shaping up to be of critical importance this season. Last night was a big victory and a huge step towards securing another title.

Congratulations to the players and the manager for taking that massive step.

On a night that was not conducive to sexy football, we’ve once again proved we have the quality, the squad depth, and the right man on the touchline to get through no matter what is thrown at us or how tough the environment is.

It’s only three points, but it feels like a significant moment. And that’s because it is.

The first episode of our re-launched podcast, The Trinity Tims, is live now. Please like, subscribe and share folks. We’re calling this one The Opening Goal.