The record shows he took the blows and did it his way: How Scott Brown skippered Celtic to eight-in-a-row

Not so much strutting as strolling.

That’s how Scott Brown skippered Celtic to their eighth title in a row.

That it didn’t take more of his trademark fire wasn’t down to Aberdeen’s failings. The Dons had real moments of quality.

It was just that Celtic’s quality was greater when it mattered.

That’s how you win trophies year after year. It’s how you win title after title after title.

That Brown has been there for all of them is no coincidence, and that he is loved by Hoops fans is no fluke.

He started as a vital cog in the green machine.

Now he is their talisman.

And the early signs all suggested Brown was up for this one.

The Hoops skipper led his team out for their warm-up like a man possessed.

He didn’t jog. He sprinted. Full of purpose. Setting the standard.

Then, of course, there was that famous walk out of the tunnel before kick-off – shoulders back, chin thrust high into the air, cocksure, and resplendent with it.

His attitude has plenty to do with why Celtic fans love him so much.

But without the unique brand of midfield generalship he has practiced with distinction for so many years, he wouldn’t have been the same force.

A wind-up merchant is only ever going to be useful in one dimension.

Give him skill, vision, tenacity and touch, however, and he’ll be a man you can build a team around.

At his best, even now aged 33, Brown is a snapping, snarling, domineering force of nature.

Yet within two minutes at Pittodrie, his timing looked a touch off the mark.

It was only a missed interception; a sliding, early lunge for a temptingly placed Dons pass. But it boiled down to energy misspent, and soon Celtic were haemorrhaging the stuff.

The Dons were without their own midfield leader, in the injured Graeme Shinnie, but they weren’t short of bite.

Brown felt it when losing the physical battle with Sam Cosgrove that led to James Wilson’s heart-in-mouth volley off the crossbar.

Normally, Celtic’s captain is the man who rattles opponents.

Put it down to nerves, or whatever you want, but in the Granite City, the Hoops – with Brown in the middle of everything – looked rattled.

Another one-on-one contest in midfield, this time with Dominic Ball, but the same outcome as before – Broony on the losing side.

Heart taken, Aberdeen hit the woodwork again, and Celtic’s captain, their steely-eyed inspiration, responded by telling his team-mates to calm down.

And there lies the multi-dimensionality of the man.

It’s not necessarily the kind of thing his reputation would suggest he has in his locker.

But anybody who has watched Brown for any length of time knows his value isn’t just in the brash stuff, and the headline-grabbing grandstanding.

It’s also in the small things, in his shrewdness, his innate sense of a game’s temperature, and his unparalleled-in-Scottish-football knowledge of how to manage it.

His direct involvement in Celtic’s opener may have been limited, but his attitude and application played its part, even in spite of those earlier physical missed steps.

Mikael Lustig’s header settled Celtic.

Then Jozo Simunovic’s effort freed them completely.

“Champions again,” sang their jubilant fans.

In midfield, Brown, the pressure off, strolled around imperiously.

Never mind the proverbial cigar, Celtic’s skipper might as well have been puffing on a real one – even though the late challenge on Aberdeen’s Ethan Ross that saw him booked would probably have made it fall out.

Before kick-off, Pittodrie paid its respects to two Celtic greats, Billy McNeill and Stevie Chalmers.

The Hoops fans raised banners and sang songs in their honour.

At this point, there’s no more room for argument – Scott Brown has earned his place in the pantheon of Parkhead greats.

If he can skipper them to another two titles after this one, and the fabled 10-in-a-row, he’ll be able to make his way to the top table.

To strut or to stroll? The choice, as ever, will be entirely his.