John Barnes announced his arrival as a manager by fashioning the kind of swaggering victory you would expect from a man who never gave the impression as a player that he regarded football as a game for fevered brows and angry expressions.
His Celtic team passed their way to an overwhelming win last night, with strikers Henrik Larsson and Mark Viduka helping themselves to a couple of goals each - the start of what promises to be a bountiful harvest in the coming months.
The returning Kenny Dalglish would have found much to admire about Celtic's play, even if against feeble opponents, and not the least encouraging aspect was the enjoyment they seemed to take from it.
Aberdeen were given the slimmest of chances to make a match of it after 52 minutes when Robbie Winters, running forward, was sandwiched by Vidmar Riseth and Olivier Tebily. It was a clear penalty which he elected to take himself, but Celtic goalkeeper Jonathan Gould guessed correctly and threw himself to his left for the save.
The error was compounded a minute later when Russell Anderson's tackle on Viduka gave Celtic a penalty of their own, which Larsson placed calmly into the back of the net. Substitute Mark Burchill added a fifth goal in the dying seconds to complete a perfect Sunday evening for his side.
The gaps in the Aberdeen sections of the stands suggested that their supporters expected very little from this match, and possibly from the entire season.
The new Aberdeen manager Ebbe Skovdahl had caused some amusement before the start of the campaign by revealing that he had ordered mattresses for his players so that they could lie down and rest between training sessions.
No one seemed to have told the poor soul that his defence had been playing as if asleep most of last season, and they began this game with another piece of doziness.
After only four minutes, Celtic patiently built up a move on the left but there was nothing out of the ordinary about Lubomar Moravcik's hanging cross. But goalkeeper David Preece, signed from Darlington, could not reach it and Derek Whyte seemed reluctant to jump for it. Larsson calmly headed the ball into the net to set his goal-scoring meter running again for the new season.
Celtic retained possession for much of the first half, but it took them until the 35th minute to extend their lead with a carbon copy of the first goal. This time the quality of Moravcik's cross was exceptional, the ball curling away from the goalkeeper, and Viduka met it strongly with his head.
The Dons were unlucky with the third because both Viduka and Riseth looked offside from an Eyal Berkovic cross before the Australian headed the ball home.
Aberdeen: Preece, Smith, Anderson,Whyte, Dow, Young (Hamilton 45), Bernard (McAllister 70), Pepper, Wyness (Kiriakov 60), Winters, Jess. Subs Not Used: Leighton, Mackie. Booked: Whyte, Bernard, Winters.
Celtic: Gould, Tebily, Boyd, Mjallby, Riseth, Lambert, Wieghorst, Berkovic, Moravcik, Larsson, Viduka (Burchill 60). Subs Not Used: Kerr, Burley, Petta, Healy. Booked: Tebily. Goals: Larsson 4, Viduka 35, 41, Larsson 52 pen, Burchill 90. Att: 16,080.
Referee: Stuart Dougal (Scotland).
