Rooney’s mission

Adam Rooney scored the winning penalty to end Aberdeen’s 19-year wait for silverware and would love to be the man who brings the Scottish Cup back to Pittodrie as he closes in on 20 goals for the third season in succession.

Adam Rooney scored the winning penalty to end Aberdeen’s end a 19-year wait for silverware and would love to be the man who brings the Scottish Cup back to Pittodrie.

The Irishman, pictured, who scored the decisive spot kick in the 2014 League Cup final victory against Caley Thistle, netted the opening goal in Saturday’s 3-2 semi-final victory against Hibernian.

Treble-chasing Celtic stand in the way of Aberdeen’s first Scottish Cup triumph since 1990 and the Dons will hope to put up more resistance than they did when they lost 3-0 to the Hoops in the League Cup final earlier this season.

Rooney, who is now only two goals away from hitting the 20-goal mark for the third successive season, said: “As a player I want to be in the position to win trophies.

“Everyone was disappointed with the way the League Cup final went, we always said we wanted to use that as a motivation to make sure we got back to Hampden.

“It is not always easy, but we have got there and given ourselves another chance to win a trophy.”

It took Rooney only 12 seconds to put the Dons in front at Hampden on Saturday and the attacker conceded even he was taken aback by his side’s blistering start. He said: “Tony Docherty (the Aberdeen assistant-manager) said before the game that the Hibernian midfielder John McGinn had been caught on the ball before.

“We wanted to set the tone and just get straight after them from kick off, but we didn’t expect go so well.

“Graeme Shinnie got absolutely wiped out by Marvin Bartley and I just gambled on a slack pass and thankfully it came off – it was a strange feeling.

“We deserved to win the match, we absolutely battered them for the first 35 minutes.

“They brought on Grant Holt who had a sudden impact and that forced us back.

“We knew they would come at us in the second half and have a right go.

“It was always going to be a difficult game and we didn’t care how we got through.

“We just wanted to make sure we were in the final it to and thankfully Jonny’s goal got us there.”

Next up for the Dons is the visit of St Johnstone to Pittodrie on Saturday and Rooney is eager to help the club move closer to confirming second spot.

He added: “Even if we get second place cemented early on, everyone will be

“We have got there and given ourselves another chance to win a trophy”

chasing a place in the team for the final and we still have a lot to play for in the rest of the season.

“We want to finish as high up the league as we can so the more points we put on the board the better.”