Rooney’s statement of intent
Razor-sharp striker warns Rangers that Dons will finish with a flourish
NO team in the country will be finishing the season stronger than relentless Aberdeen, according to Adam Rooney — and the Pittodrie striker is intent on hammering home that message against Rangers next week.
Rooney struck his 100th goal in Scottish football on Friday as the Dons dismantled Dundee 7-0 at Dens Park — a statement of success that tees up a Pittodrie showdown next Sunday in the race for the Ladbrokes Premiership runners-up berth.
Aberdeen are approaching their fourth successive summer with a late June or early July start in European competition yet their form and fitness has at no point suffered from the weight of their schedule competing on multiple fronts.
Pedro Caixinha cancelled midweek days off at Auchenhowie to bring Rangers up to speed for the run-in, while Rooney believes the razor-sharp Reds were freshened up for a superb display on Tayside by some time off granted by manager Derek McInnes during the international week.
And they are only growing stronger as the campaign rolls on towards a league and Scottish Cup climax, starting with the visit of Inverness Caley Thistle on Tuesday.
‘All the lads appear sharp and it is hard for any team to live with us if we are pressing with that intensity,’ said Rooney, whose scoring thunder was surprisingly stolen by hat-trick hero Andrew Considine at Dens.
‘We were back in training on June 13 last year. It has been a long year, as was the year before. Maybe the early starts are benefiting us come this stage of the season. A couple of the lads were away on international duty last week and didn’t get the break.
‘We had a few days off and the boys have recovered. Training has been sharper than it has been all season.
‘The break has probably benefited us a great deal. We have a big week ahead of us now with Inverness then Rangers. Everyone else is really flying fitness-wise at the minute.
‘It is credit to the gaffer,
Tony Docherty and our sports science guy Graham Kirk and everybody we have here at the minute.
‘A lot of it is also down to the players’ attitudes. There is confidence right throughout the team and that is down to the hard work. It has been a tough season so far and we want to finish on a high.’
The mauling of Dundee, in which the excellent Kenny McLean, Ryan Jack and Niall McGinn also helped themselves to goals, took Aberdeen’s form line since the Friday before Christmas to 14 wins in 16 games.
Six weeks after a 7-2 demolition of Motherwell, this unremitting group were men on a mission at Dundee with a performance that was ‘right up there’ with the most complete team displays of which Rooney has been a part.
‘We had a big win over Motherwell earlier on in the season but Dundee has probably topped that again,’ said Rooney, who will first face his former club Inverness on Tuesday. ‘Right from the off we got after them.
‘We’ve really picked up since where we were before the break. When we go forward as well we always have players who can hurt teams. Overall, it was great.
‘We need to keep playing the way we have been and, if we do, it will be hard for others to catch us.
‘That depends on us performing like we did in Dundee. We can’t take it for granted we will go out and win games like we did on Friday.
‘But momentum is massive, we are on a great run and want to keep that going. We have shown, outside of Celtic, that we are capable of beating anyone this season and in previous years we have beaten Celtic.
‘There is a motivation because we lost a cup final earlier in the season and we want to try to finish off on a high. There is still a lot to play for with a couple of teams chasing us and we want to make sure we are the best of the rest, although Celtic are way out in front.
‘We also want to try and get to another cup final. All the boys are right up for it. I think there is enough experience and we know we have a good group of lads who are capable of achieving things.’ New Rangers manager Caixinha caught the 7-0 action at Dens but Rooney was immediately more interested in Aberdeen maintaining their level of performance on Tuesday when former team-mate Richie Foran brings Inverness to Pittodrie. ‘I am sure anyone watching our performance against Dundee would take a lot from it,’ said Rooney of Caixinha’s visit. ‘We were dominant. But we won’t focus too much on that. We have a big game on Tuesday and need to make sure we take care of Inverness who have picked up good results of late.
‘We need to put in the same kind of performance against them that we did against Dundee. They will be desperate to get a result themselves and we just need to make sure we get to the same standards as we did against Dundee. That will be enough to win the game.
‘Richie will be as a manager like he was as a player. He will be driven, hard-working and his desire to win, even if it was table tennis, screams out of him. He will be no different with his players. He will demand that. We know on their day they are capable of causing an upset.’
Four games without a goal is drought material for Rooney but he corrected that on Friday with his milestone strike midway through the first half. So what did he make of Considine’s rare feat grabbing the headlines?
‘We’re all gutted — he won’t shut up about it now,’ he grinned. ‘Seriously, the whole crowd when he came up for the free-kick was screaming at him to get on the end of it. The lads are delighted.’