Rooney targets place in history books by firing century at Dons

By MARK WILSON

FOR Adam Rooney, the four years of his new contract offer a chance to embolden his place in Aberdeen’s history. His desire is to reach a century of goals as the club collects more silverware. Achieving both would give the Irishman huge satisfaction. Rooney’s importance to the Dons was emphasised earlier this month with the award of a lucrative extension that ties him to the club until at least the summer of 2020. The show of faith is hardly surprising when you consider he is their first player since Billy Dodds to score 20 goals in a single season — a feat Rooney has achieved twice despite missing the last 12 matches of the previous campaign through injury.

It’s now 60 in total ahead of a 109th appearance for Aberdeen when Hearts visit Pittodrie this afternoon. Becoming the first player since Drew Jarvie, almost four decades ago, to break the 100-goal barrier is now within his sights.

Rooney wrote his name into Aberdeen folklore just two months after joining from Oldham Athletic, when he scored the decisive penalty in their shoot-out win against former club Inverness in the 2014 League Cup Final.

The only disappointment of his time in red is that it remains the solitary trophy won by Aberdeen in the last 21 years. Rooney, though, believes both he and the club will enjoy more success in the years ahead.

‘I’ve signed up for another four seasons, so, if I keep going the way I have been going, there’s no reason I can’t get over 100 goals,’ he said. ‘That’s the target.

‘The main thing is to keep scoring and enjoying my football, but it would be pretty special to get to that kind of total.

‘I’m not really a man to set targets or aim to set records, but there’s no doubt that would be brilliant.

‘The way this team plays, we create a lot of chances, so there would be every opportunity for me to get well over the 100 mark by the end of my contract.

‘That would be nice, but the main thing is winning as many trophies as possible. We’ve managed to get one in recent years, but we want to get more.

‘The aim is to keep improving in the league and in Europe. Last year, we finished slightly behind in terms of our points total, but we narrowed the gap on Celtic, so we want to kick on again this year.

‘The cups are a big thing for us. We were disappointed to go out in the first rounds last year, but we are already a stage further (in the League Cup) this season.

‘You want to go all the way and win these competitions. You could see the day we had the other year and the celebrations in front of 80,000 people on Union Street.

‘That’s something we want again and I’m sure we have a squad that’s capable of winning things.’

In the absence of Rangers from the top flight, it was a revitalised Aberdeen who emerged as Celtic’s closest challengers for the title over the last two seasons.

Last May, they finished 15 points adrift of the champions, but the loss of Rooney through injury for the run-in didn’t help their cause.

In fact, the Dons were just six points behind Ronny Deila’s side when the striker picked up the thigh tear that meant he missed the last 12 matches of the season.

So, does the Dubliner think they can still pose the biggest threat to Celtic, even with Rangers back in the Premiership?

‘I can’t see why not,’ claimed Rooney. ‘People are saying Rangers coming in to the league will make it more difficult, but I look at it the other way.

‘They will take points off Celtic and Hearts, plus the likes of St Johnstone and Inverness, as well.

‘It will make it an even more competitive league. Everyone will be beating each other.

‘There will be more attention on Celtic and Rangers and the whole Old Firm thing again. But that’s fine with us, we’ll focus on ourselves and making sure we are in the mix.

‘I think we’ve set the record points tally for sides out of the Old Firm, so we know what we can do and it’s about improving even further.

‘I know there’s been a gap to Celtic in the last two seasons, but we have fallen away at the tail end of the season once the title was out of reach.

‘We just want to make sure we are there or thereabouts come the split and see what happens.

‘I’m sure Hearts will also be up there. They were strong last year and they have signed some good players in the summer. It’s going to be really tight.’

Manager Derek McInnes has concerns over the fitness of centre-half Ash Taylor and striker Jayden Stockley, at a time when Jonny Hayes is already sidelined.

Taylor missed the midweek Betfred Cup victory at Ayr United through illness, while Stockley is struggling with a hamstring strain.

Hearts have problems of their own, with Jamie Walker serving a ban for simulation, but McInnes doesn’t believe that will make his task easier.

‘He’s (Walker) a good player and they’d obviously want him back,’ said McInnes. ‘But we concentrate on ourselves and I’m sure Hearts have players there that can come in and do a job.

‘I think they’ll come here expecting a tough game and that’s exactly what we need to give them. Hearts have shown over the last couple of seasons how good a side they are and I’m sure they’ll do that again this season.’

There’s no reason that I can’t score 100 goals for Aberdeen