Celtic's positivity helped in Aberdeen win, says Kieran Tierney
A 2-0 win for the Hoops extended their lead at the top back to nine points
Kieran Tierney believes Celtic's positive attitude was the reason they were able to bounce back from their European exit in Russia with a crucial 2-0 win at Aberdeen on Sunday.
The Hoops were dumped out of the Europa League round of 32 stage on Thursday night by Zenit St Petersburg after a 3-0 defeat.
Brendan Rodgers' side arrived back in Glasgow on Friday to begin their preparation for Sunday's trip to Aberdeen and saw their lead at the top of the Premiership cut to six points by Rangers on Saturday following the Light Blues' 2-0 win over Hearts at Ibrox.
However, there was no hint of any pressure or fatigue within the Parkhead side and after striker Moussa Dembele headed the visitors into the lead in the 37th minute Tierney clinched the points late on with fine strike following a breakaway.
The match ended 10 a side after Hoops defender Mikael Lustig and Dons debutant substitute Sam Cosgrove both saw red in separate incidents.
"We are always positive about it,'' said 20-year-old left-back Tierney, who admitted it had been "great'' to celebrate his goal in front of the Celtic fans.
"That's how it is at Celtic, you are always going to have games, games, games and we dealt with it great.
"It is a tough place to go but we got the win and clean sheet so we are happy.
"If it sends out a message it does but we are not concentrating on that, we are concentrating on ourselves, we went there and got the performance and result we wanted.''
Aberdeen have lost their last 10 games against Celtic and boss Derek McInnes said: "It is not a stat that we are proud of it but it was common for a while.
"We have beaten Celtic previously but we haven't managed it in the last couple of seasons.
"We are now judged against Celtic. There was a time we couldn't get a result against Inverness and Ross County and the likes.
"There has been a lot of progress here but for us to make our mark and beat this Celtic team we need to do the little things a lot better than we did this time.
"But certainly the thought was there, the work rate was there, players won tackles and we gave ourselves a chance and we will take that into the rest of the season.'