The long-awaited return of Celtic captain Callum McGregor produced something of a cinematic ending in the Granite City.

It just had to be him, didn't it? Missing through injury since October, it was fitting that it was inspirational skipper McGregor who scored the 200th goal of Ange Postecoglou's short reign as manager. That in itself is a remarkable achievement.

It was the 100th goal at both home and away for Postecoglou's version of the rip-roaring, free-scoring, never-boring Glasgow Celtic.

When he was asked what that statistic said about his side, Postecoglou joked: "We score goals, yeah." 

He did, however, go on to add: "Look it's who we want to be, home or away. You saw our approach today... we're going to go at teams, we want to entertain our fans and play our football. It has served us well so far, so we're going to continue to do that."

Celtic most certainly do score goals. Make no mistake, the Hoops dominated this match at Pittodrie against Aberdeen and it would have been a total injustice had they not waltzed away with all three points.

The Reds adopted an anti-football stance and played to contain the Hoops, which was a bit of a surprise as Jim Goodwin's men had won six out of seven league games at home this campaign.

However, after McGregor's wonderful late strike it's as you were as Celtic re-established their nine-point lead at the top of the Scottish Premiership.

The skipper remains the beating heart of this Celtic team. Nobody knows that more than his boss, who saluted the jewel in the crown of his relentless side in the aftermath of the Pittodrie win.

"We never lost or wavered from our approach and it was great for the skipper to step up," Postecoglou added. "What a great way for him to come back into the team. We did awfully well without him but he's a fantastic footballer. He makes our team better, absolutely.

"I was super happy to get him back in the side and he got what he deserved. I thought he was really important for us today, he dictated to play in the middle of the park and made sure we didn't get too anxious about scoring, biding our time and then a great finish."

My Celtic Way colleague Sean Martin once described McGregor as the team's Paul McCartney figure.

Sean wasn't wrong, you know. This was again a player orchestrating the band to ensure every bit of fine-tuning was perfect before he hit the right note himself at the end with a goal of such stunning quality that it brought about a tremendous crescendo.

Celtic Way:

To quote Sean: "McGregor's the one telling and showing the rest of the band how to push through it. In Get Back you come away with the impression McCartney was that person for the Beatles in the studio, certainly at that time. For Celtic, on the pitch, that's McGregor. He is the driving force."

As if to emphasise McGregor's massive influence on this team, here's another incredible statistic: he played more passes in this match than any other player has in a Premiership game this season.

Cue Postecoglou again: "That's who Callum is, you know? He's such an important part of our team and he's just a fantastic footballer. We needed that today because it's easy for me to sit here and say we've got to stick to the process and play our football but when you're out there and you're so dominant and you haven't scored it's easy to get anxious. Cal kept the foot on the accelerator just the right amount."

McGregor kept his foot on the accelerator alright. If ever a performance summed up the 'we never stop' mantra from last season's double-winning campaign it was this one.

This could well end up a defining moment in the 2022-23 Scottish Premiership title race, as the win at Pittodrie last October was for Postecoglou's first season.

Of course, Celtic's cool, calm and collected captain took it all in his stride as you would expect.

"It was great to come back into the team and score the winner," McGregor said. "To go all the way to the end again and get the winner tells you what’s in that changing room in terms of character and spirit.

"Jamesy [Forrest] sees the picture on the inside, he just puts his foot on the ball and I get a touch and hit it. I think as soon as I hit it I knew it was in. It was important for me to come back in and get up to speed as quickly as I could so I could help the team. The boys have done magnificently well when I was away. They got the results, it's just important I come back in and add to that.

"But that’s what we’ve been about for 18 months now. We don’t want to get frustrated. It’s important that we stick to the structure and stick to what gets us success. The manager is really big on that."

Callum McGregor is well and truly back; normal service has been resumed.

You couldn't even script it in Hollywood, could you?

Well, actually, you probably could. You see, Postecoglou and McGregor have been making sweet music together for well over 18 months now... sweet Celtic music.