Nick Kuhn would have been forgiven for wondering just what he has wandered into in joining Celtic as he warmed up as a substitute at Pittodrie.
Last week, his team were booed off after beating Ross County as he made his debut from the bench. This week, there were loud, angry protests from the travelling support towards the club’s board. A banner which castigated them for their January transfer window business, when he was their headline capture. And that’s before we even get to the action on the pitch.
To describe Aberdeen’s approach to the first half as rudimentary would be painting it in a favourable light. They dug in deep, shelled the ball back to Celtic whenever it landed at their feet, and only got to half time on level terms due to the visitors' wastefulness in front of goal.
READ MORE: Aberdeen 1 Celtic 1: Champions spill points as transfer window anger laid bare
Luis Palma was chief culprit, the winger having one of his frustrating days as he had a goal ruled out for a clear offside (after a bizarrely long VAR check) and blowing two other great opportunities, clipping the top of the bar with the best of those.
Paulo Bernardo also dinked one off the woodwork, but it seemed a matter of time before Celtic would find the net.
Fair play to Aberdeen interim manager Peter Leven for his half time words of wisdom, with his instructions to the men in red to relax paying off. They were a team transformed after the interval, helped along by the brilliantly taken opener from Bojan Miovski with his first sniff of the game.
The travelling support were apoplectic. Celtic were suddenly on the rack. Maik Nawrocki seemed particularly rattled, and was lucky not to be shown a second yellow card.
Brendan Rodgers turned to his bench, and sent an SOS to his new signings. Within minutes, Kuhn had combined with Adam Idah to fashion a leveller, albeit with the aid of a deflection off Nicky Devlin, and from there it was anyone’s game.
Kuhn himself showed moments of calm amid the maelstrom, and moments of quality too whenever he received the ball as it was shuttled frantically from one end to the other.
It has been quite the introduction to the Scottish game for Kuhn, and life at Celtic, but he showed he could handle it.
And afterwards, he showed that he fully understands the demands now resting on his shoulders. This was not to be seen as a point gained on the road after falling behind. This was two points spilled in the title race, no matter which way you slice it.
“I am happy to score my first goal for Celtic but we wanted to take the three points,” Kuhn said.
“That is why I came on and the coach brought me on because he wanted me to make an impact. I am happy I scored but in the end it wasn’t good enough.
“It is frustrating. We came here for the three points and we are disappointed but we need to keep going. We have a chance to do better this week.
“We have some pressure here because we have to win, and we want to win every game. We just have to do better next week.
“I have played with some big clubs before with the same expectation. It is nothing new for me.
“It is good [to have pressure]. I don’t think you can go in and think the middle of the table is enough. That is one of the reasons why I came here.
READ MORE: Celtic fan anger can't distract players, says Brendan Rodgers
“There is a long way to go and a lot of games to play. Of course, we need to be positive. We need the fans and we also need to stay together, so we can improve and get better and better in every game.
“Of course [we believe we can win the title], the quality of the team is very good. We will also give our best every week.
“In the first half we had a couple of good chances and we just needed to score. It was a little more difficult to go 1-0 down but we showed some character and came back. We wanted three points because one is not enough.
“We are a bit disappointed. We can’t drop too many points, but we need to keep going.”
In fairness to the Celtic fans who protested at the game on Saturday, their anger was not directed at the players who were brought in during January, but inspired by the players who weren’t brought in.
Both Idah and Khun received their full backing, and the winger is hoping to show them over the coming weeks that while they might not have got everything that they wanted last month, what they do have is some added quality on the flanks at least.
“This was my second game in seven weeks now,” he said.
“I have to get used to playing again. I am settling down in Glasgow and I am feeling better and better.
“Of course, there is so much more to come. As I said, it is only my second game and I hope to show over the coming weeks I can get better and better.”
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