Do Aberdeen have the bottle to win in title race with Celtic?

Strange how the Scottish season is panning out.

If someone had told me in August that by New Year we’d have a title race in one of our top two leagues plus a walkover in the other, I know what I’d have been expecting.

Celtic running away with the Premiership and Rangers fighting it out with either Hearts or Hibs in the Championship. It is typical of football that six months on we find the situation completely reversed.

Hearts, re-born under the direction of Ann Budge, Craig Levein and Robbie Neilson, are running away with the second tier. The Hoops, meanwhile, managed by new boss Ronny Deila, appear to have a scrap on their hands with Aberdeen.

The renaissance of the Dons under Derek McInnes has been one of the stories of the season.

Their run of victories has brought crowds flooding back to Pittodrie, and fostered genuine belief among the support they can end the season on top of the pile.

It is not hard to see where they are coming from. This Celtic side has shown itself to be vulnerable at home and abroad.

The new manager is pursuing his dream of a high-energy, attacking team. Things are still in a transitional phase and sometimes, as happened at Tannadice against Dundee United a couple of weeks back, they can get caught out.

That doesn’t mean they will lose the title to Aberdeen, even though Derek McInnes is clearly doing a great job at Pittodrie.

Before I believed a Dons triumph was possible, I would need to see concrete proof they have the bottle to see it out. Think back to last season, to just after they had won the League Cup Final against Inverness Caley thistle.

Then the talk was all of them following up by winning the Scottish Cup and clinching a runners-up spot in the League.

However, first they threw away the chance of a Cup double with a poor performance against St Johnstone in the Scottish semis.

Then, when all they needed to tie up a second place finish was draw at home to Motherwell, they lost it in stoppage time.

To lose one of those tests was bad enough. To lose two pointed up a potential flaw in the team’s character.

So right now I need evidence of the Dons’ increased mental fortitude before tipping an Aberdeen title win.