Aberdeen 4 Ross County 0

Aberdeen cut Celtic's lead at the top of the Scottish Premiership to three points after a comfortable 4-0 win over basement side Ross County, whose relegation fears increased.

The Dons dominated the play and Adam Rooney's early opener came giftwrapped after a shocking mistake by County keeper Antonio Reguero, who was then beaten by second-half strikes from Peter Pawlett, Shay Logan and David Goodwillie.

The result was the ideal tonic for Derek McInnes' men after last week's Scottish League Cup semi-final defeat to Dundee United.

Rooney wasted a great chance to give them the lead after just two minutes.

Kenny McLean's low ball from the left side of the penalty area deflected into his path but from 12 yards, the usually clinical Irishman miscued his shot well off target.

However, Rooney was on the scoresheet in the 12th minute after a calamitous error from Reguero. The Spaniard spilled the tamest of low crosses from Jonny Hayes and Rooney had a simple task to knock the ball over the line from point-blank range.

It was exactly what the rock-bottom Staggies did not need after a winless run stretching back to November 8, although they did have a chance to hit back four minutes later when Liam Boyce earned a free-kick after being tripped just outside the box by Logan, but Filip Kiss fired straight into the wall.

Reguero made a better fist of dealing with a Mark Reynolds header in the 21st minute from Andrew Considine's clipped cross as the Dons went in search of a second.

Aberdeen had to make a substitution 10 minutes before the break when Donervorn Daniels failed to recover after falling awkwardly midway through the half and the on-loan West Brom defender was replaced by Joe Shaughnessy.

The hosts had a strong claim for a penalty on the stroke of half-time when Logan went down under a challenge from Tony Dingwall but referee Craig Thomson played on much to the annoyance of the Pittodrie crowd.

Both teams made a change at the interval with the Dons swapping Cammy Smith for Pawlett and the visitors replacing Scott Boyd with Steven Saunders.

Pawlett did not take long to make an impact, scoring in the 50th minute to give his team a two-goal cushion.

Rooney slipped a neat ball through the County defence for the substitute, who made an immaculate job of rounding Reguero and squeezing the ball into the net from a tight angle.

This was not a vintage Aberdeen display but they still had far too much for their opponents, who fell further behind in the 61st minute.

Logan was allowed to wander forward and cut inside on to his left foot before sending a curling 20-yard effort into the net, although Reguero, having got a hand on the ball, might have done better.

County were hemmed in and Pawlett nearly netted again in the 79th minute but this time Reguero was up to the task, beating away the midfielder's rasping 20-yard drive.

Substitute Goodwillie added a fourth goal for the Dons five minutes from time with a tidy finish after latching on to a Hayes throughball to complete a miserable afternoon for the Dingwall team.