Now that’s more like it.
Though this was certainly, on paper, the most appealing of Aberdeen’s first six league fixtures, it came with no guarantee that they would romp it in such convincing fashion.
Few and far between had been the indicators that the Dons’ cogs were anywhere near sufficiently aligned to drive the team over the winning line at such speed.
They were undoubtedly, even if little about the games themselves bore similarity, suffused with confidence at having given the 2022 Europa League winners a close run on their own turf.
That had been the first serious evidence that this season’s iteration was a team of any measure, and yesterday they strode onto the field having finally remembered who they are.
It was particularly gratifying to see Luis Lopes once more feeling like Duk. After a nondescript start to the season, he finally lived up to his Sunday name and delivered the attacking numbers.
Whilst he will be most relieved to have contributed his first goal of the campaign, it is perhaps the assist registered which was the most familiarly Duk-like.
That split-second of unexpected, undefendable inspiration which has the potential to elevate him above his peers, even on days when little else is happening for him.
Duk’s lack of production in the early weeks was rarely his own fault.
He is by definition a player who requires others to be on his wavelength to benefit from those out-of-the-blue offerings, and it was clear from the fondness of the celebrations that his absence from the scoresheet had not dimmed the affection or esteem in which he is held by fans and teammates alike.
One Duk does not make a summer, of course. If anything the second leg of this double-header is the more important; these standards must be retained.
