Adam Rooney won't relinquish penalty duties

Published 7th Aug 2016

Aberdeen striker Adam Rooney insists he will not shy away from penalty duties despite his costly Europa League spot-kick miss.

Rooney had the chance to fire Derek McInnes' side a step closer to the group stages in Thursday night's third qualifying round clash with Maribor.

But goalkeeper Jasmin Handanovic blocked his tame effort as the Slovenians held on for a 2-1 aggregate win.

It was a cruel defeat, especially after Aberdeen had dominated the second leg, but Rooney has not been put off taking responsibility from 12 yards.

He told RedTV: That was the first penalty I have missed for Aberdeen - it's just unfortunate it came at the wrong time in such a big game.

However, if we had got another on Thursday night I would probably have taken that one as well. Hopefully that is the only penalty I miss for this club.''

Aberdeen will now turn their focus to Ladbrokes Premiership duty.

They open their league campaign against St Johnstone in Perth and Rooney reckons the disappointment of their European exit can fire the Dons up for a title fight with the likes of Celtic and Rangers.

The Irishman, who penned a new four-year deal in the wake of the Maribor defeat, said: We want to keep adding trophies. Since I've been at the club we have continued to improve and improve.

We showed that against Maribor. We dominated a very good side but just could not take our chances. Hopefully we can kick on now, though.

It's quite good to have the league kicking off on Sunday. We don't have to dwell on it. We just have to put all out focus onto the league and use the hurt of Thursday as motivation.''