Sport

Larsson loses his locks but keeps his head

Henrik Larsson's dreadlocks have abruptly gone but his head retains all its old instincts for goal

By GRAHAM SPIERS
Mon Oct 02 2000 - 01:00

Henrik Larsson's dreadlocks have abruptly gone but his head retains all its old instincts for goal. Aberdeen, after a boisterous opening half yesterday, looked set to win until Larsson popped up with a crisp header in the 82nd minute to preserve Celtic's unbeaten status in the league.

Pittodrie has witnessed a few rabid encounters between Aberdeen and the Old Firm and this was always threatening to become another of them. In the second half, especially, there were some scything tackles, which forced the referee, Mike McCurry, to issue five yellow cards and finally send Bobby Petta off.

There might be a faint evangelical fervour around Scotland's oil capital over the rebirth of Robbie Winters, a young striker who has always had off-field problems, but who this season has come to resemble the prospect everyone savoured three years ago.

Early in the first half, haring towards Jonathan Gould with all his old zip, Winters was blatantly tripped inside the box by Tom Boyd. McCurry chose to ignore that incident but the striker was to claim his justice before the break.

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Aberdeen, on the basis of their simmering opening half, thoroughly merited the lead Winters snatched for them seconds before half-time. Sent on his way by an exchange of passes between Eoin Jess and Derek Young, the striker once more sprinted through on Gould before applying a golfer's feathery wedge shot to send the ball over the advancing goalkeeper.

Fluency, Celtic's traditional currency, was in drastically short supply. Larsson's goal, though, was a typical leap of opportunism by the Swede. Lubomir Moravcik worked a short corner before curling the ball over, where Larsson's now shaven head rose to direct it past Ryan Esson. In these moments we can now no longer talk about the lank locks flying. But Aberdeen are entitled to feel they had two points lopped off.

ABERDEEN: Esson, Rowson, McGuire, Whyte, McNaughton, Guntveit, Jess, Clark, D. Young, Mackie (Belabed 69), Winters. Subs Not Used: Preece, McAllister, Mayer, Perry. Booked: D Young, Whyte, Mackie. Goal: Winters 45.

CELTIC: Gould, Boyd, Valgaeren, Mjallby, McNamara, Thompson (Mahe 37), Lambert (Moravcik 46), Petrov, Petta, Larsson, Sutton, Mahe (Healy 65). Subs Not Used: Kerr, Berkovic. Sent Off: Petta (82). Booked: Mjallby, Petta, Healy. Goal: Larsson 82.

Referee: M McCurry (Scotland).