It is a controversy that has dragged-on for 14 weeks.

It was at Parkhead on September 13 during a tense game between Celtic and Aberdeen that the Hoops Bulgarian midfielder Aleksandar Tonev racially abused Shay Logan, the Aberdeen full-back, calling him a "black c***".

Now, as a SFA disciplinary appeal panel agreed with the original finding - that Tonev was, indeed, guilty and should serve the seven-match suspension imposed initially - Derek McInnes, the Aberdeen manager, hopes the curtain will come down on the matter.

He also praised his player for his resilience in the intervening weeks as Celtic stated and re-stated their conviction that their man was innocent, despite Aberdeen insisting their player had been wronged.

There was a hope inside Pittodrie that Celtic will not place the case before the Court for Arbitration in Sport in Switzerland as McInnes spoke of the immense pressure under which Logan had been since the offence was perpetrated.

"I am delighted we can draw a line under it and move on now," he said.

"We have always supported Shay, just as we would support any of our players or employee who had been wronged.

"We are back to where we are before the appeal was made.

"Now the appeal has been completed I think we can all move on now; that is important.

"We can't comprehend how much pressure Shay has felt under the scrutiny of it all but he has never allowed his performances to dip.

"That says a lot for him. Getting the full support from everyone at the club was important to him and rightly so.

"Shay and everyone else just wants to move on and talk about football.

"We have supported him and we felt it was worth supporting him and now we move on."

McInnes also admitted he was concerned over the psychological well-being of the former Brentford defender but was impressed that he managed to stay focused throughout.

He said: "You speak to your players on a daily basis and you want them to go into games in a positive frame of mind.

"You would need to ask him how he felt but he is a confident, bubbly boy and is very popular with everybody here.

"He loves his football and is committed to us. He loves being at Aberdeen, loves his training and is a very popular boy.

"If he has felt down then he hasn't really shown it that way outwardly."

McInnes, whose impressive Dons outplayed Dundee United at Tannadice last weekend reckoned that, if they can hold their nerve, they will continue to build on their performances as struggling Kilmarnock visit the north-east tomorrow.

"Even with the couple of defeats we have had against Dundee in the Scottish Cup and Celtic at Pittodrie," he said, "it has more been down to a lack of concentration than a lack of performance.

"We are happy with that but we are mindful that it doesn't come automatically. We need to keep working at it.

"Certainly the players are in a confident frame of mind.

"They are buoyant and feeling good about themselves.

"They are itching for the next game as it always seems to be that way when you are in decent form.

"We are really looking forward to the game and we said at the start of the month that it was a really important period for us and that remains the same.

"We are up against a Kilmarnock team and it is a total reverse from when we played them at Rugby Park in the middle of August.

"They were in great form and although we won the game 2-0 down there I thought it was a tight match.

"We never got it all our own way but two bits of quality separated the teams.

"We are now playing them when they are searching for three points to get them going again.

"I feel they have too many good players for that to continue for too long.

"We just have to make sure they get their next win somewhere else and not here."

Midfielder Barry Robson, out of action for several weeks because of a hip injury, is expected to be on the bench tomorrow.