Adam Rooney is ‘so important’ to Aberdeen, says Derek McInnes

Derek McInnes said Adam Rooney's hat-trick against St Johnstone underlined his importance to Aberdeen as they joined Celtic at the top of the Ladbrokes Premiership.

The Irish striker netted all the goals in a 3-0 win at Pittodrie on Saturday and McInnes praised the “nuisance'' factor that Rooney provides.

Aberdeen manager McInnes said: “We had a good chat with him through the week. I feel his all-round game was very good. We've had in the past players who can get us up the pitch in Niall McGinn and Jonny Hayes, who could get Adam where we needed to get him in front of goal.

“In our new team we need his contribution to win us headers to get us up the pitch, being a nuisance and being aggressive.

“Him and Stevie May bounced off each other well. When you get Adam between the sticks, you wouldn't swap him for anyone else. He anticipates brilliantly and he's always on the move. He's a natural finisher.

“I was really pleased with his overall performance. When he plays like that he's so important to me and the team.''

St Johnstone boss Tommy Wright was visibly angered by his side's poor performance.

Despite his frustration, Wright will not be cancelling the players' scheduled days off during the international break.

“They've got their time off. I'm not one for cancelling their time off. I think it defeats the purpose,'' Wright said. “It's like taking something away because they've been naughty boys.

“I need a couple of days off after watching that performance, and I'm taking my days off.

“In the big picture it's a blip, but over the 90 minutes it was a massively poor performance.

“That isn't us. It was nowhere near the level you need to be to come here. We were better in the second half but we still didn't pass the ball well enough.

“Nobody wanted the ball. We got into good positions and the full-backs didn't want to go forward.

“We played well last week but we came up with a low level in terms of quality and we do away with a lot of the good work we did last week.'

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