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Aberdeen Football Club

Rooney Scores Twice to Beat Dundee

Aberdeen have continued their excellent start to the season with a two nill victory over Dundee, with both goals coming from in form strker Adam Rooney.

Adam Rooney An outstanding frontman who has scored goals at all the teams he played at, and his goal scoring record with Aberdeen is equally as impressive with 55 goals in 29 games.


Watch Adam Rooney goals from last season

Russell Anderson rues injury woe

Winters denies Bradford move

Aberdeen striker Robbie Winters has denied that he is about to link up with former Dons man Eoin Jess at Bradford City.

Both Jim Jeffries' City and Manchester City have been reportedly interested in taking the striker south of the border, but Winters, whose contract expires next summer, insists that he would be happy to remain in the Granite City.

After Arild Stavrum's hasty departure to Besiktas, The Dons' supporters are becoming increasingly worried at the amount of players whose contracts are set to expire, and would therefore be able to leave the club.

Winters, however, has dismissed the reports, and said: "I would be happy to turn down a move in England to sign a new contract here. I love it at Aberdeen, and have really enjoyed the last three years."

Skovdahl backs Mackie

Ebbe Skovdahl has backed striker Darren Mackie after his double in Saturday's match against Livingston secured a point for The Dons. Mackie hit a double against Livi

Skovdahl's men came bouncing back from last Tuesday's humiliating 6-1 CIS Cup thrashing against Livingston, to secure a point in Saturday's match at Almondvale, despite being two goals down.

Although Mackie could have won all three points for Aberdeen when his shot in the final minute went just past the post, Skovdahl has praised the pacy striker.

The manager said: "I think Darren Mackie is a good player, and has got the most valuable weapon which is pace. We are working a lot with his technique and his first touch, and hopefully he can improve a lot more.

"He has improved in the last year, and hopefully there is room for more improvement from him."

Picture: Mackie hit a double against Livi

Solberg set for Moss return

Aberdeen's Thomas Solberg looks set to return to his former club Moss early in the New Year after his brief stay in Scotland.

The Norwegian can leave Aberdeen as a Bosman free to a foreign club from January 1 and all the signs point to him returning home.

The 31-year-old, who has also played for Viking, told Norwegian local paper Moss Avis: "There is a strong possibility that I will move back to Moss after the end of the Norwegian season. The family is already preparing to move back home. The reason I am leaving as a Bosman player is not about the money, I just want to back nearer my friends and family."

Solberg went on to say that his number one choice, should he return, would be Moss as the club has a special place in his heart, although he added that no concrete negotiations to bring him back to Norway have begun yet.

Mackie glad to be back on track

Aberdeen's two-goal hero Darren Mackie admits that revenge was sweet for the Pittodrie side after losing so heavily in the CIS Cup in midweek. Mackie hopes his goals will make up for the cup exit

The 6-1 defeat was hard for the Dons players to accept, but Saturday's draw helped erase the memory of the cup exit.

The striker said: "It was difficult going into Saturday's match because we tried to forget all about the cup game.

"But no matter how hard you try, it is always there at the back of your mind.

"That maybe gave us a bit more motivation, though, because we really felt that we had let the fans down with our performance.

"It wasn't a nice feeling and it was something that I don't want to experience again for a long time.

"We knew that we had something to prove to them, to ourselves and to everybody else. Although we only got a point, I think we managed to do that."

Picture: Mackie hopes his goals will make up for the cup exit

Killie kids done by Dons

Aberdeen clawed back a two-goal deficit in the SPL youth league to beat Kilmarnock 3-2 at Rugby Park yesterday.

The home side started the game in convincing fashion, and took the lead in style when young midfield ace Gary McDonald fired a long shot past Mark Peat in The Dons goal, and French striker David Merdy, signed in the summer, fired a timely reminder of his presence by adding Killie's second.

Bobby Williamson's men were surprisingly denied what looked to be a certain penalty in the first half which would have probably put the result beyond doubt, when the referee waved away claims despite Kris Boyd being hauled down in the box.

And that was just the encouragement Ebbe Skovdahl's men needed to spur themselves back into contention, and they kicked off their comeback with a Scott Michie goal just before half time.

The young striker added a second after the break and Rachid Belabed hit a long-range shot in the dying minutes to complete Aberdeen's comeback - but not before Boyd again looked hard done by when a goal was chalked off by the match officials.

Change the rules insists Smith

Dundee United boss Alex Smith has called upon the SPL to back his plans to change the loan rule for younger players to get them more experience.

Smith wants younger players to be allowed access to as many clubs as possible who need players in the lower leagues to give them first-team experience in meaningful games rather than suffer at Under-21 level, competing with established stars coming back from injury.

Smith spoke to our reporter exclusively, saying: "I think I was picked up wrongly when I demanded clubs start to use their younger players for the sake of the Scotland team and its development.

"What I want for our younger players is to bring them through by playing them in meaningful games for as long as it takes, and not for limited periods.

"I know just how hard it is for the Old Firm and even clubs like Hibs to play their younger players who I have in my Scotland Under-21 sides, but this is an issue we have to address for the sake of our national team future."

Top clubs get sports medicine invite

Scottish SPL clubs and their fans have been invited to attend a unique Sports Injury clinic hosted by some of the World's top experts next month.

Former Rangers physio Graham Smith will be joined at The Holiday Inn at Glasgow Airport by sports psychologist Tom Lucas who is currently working alongside many SPL stars to assist with their training and pre-match build up.

As clubs continue to suffer with injuries especially to the ankle region, the conference will hear from Sports consultant Professor Michael Cullen from Belfast, Dr Nick Mahoney of Trinity College Dublin and Dr Richard Cox, and Edinburgh Sports Psychologist and top of the agenda rill be collectively getting to the bottom of the growing trend of top stars breaking down on a more regular basis than in the past.

There is a fee for the seminar, and all enquiries should be directed to Sports Rehab and Education on 0141 221 1494.

Monday, October 15, 2001

Mackie gutted with miss

Darren Mackie has spoken of his disappointment after seeing his injury-time effort hit the side netting at Livingston on Saturday. Mackie missed the chance that would have handed the Dons victory

The young striker thought he had grabbed the winner at Almondvale but spun his shot just wide to leave the match at 2-2.

Dons fans in the stand - and players on the bench - celebrated what they thought was a goal, only to realise that Mackie had spurned his chance to land a hat-trick.

Mackie had hauled The Dons level when he hooked the ball home on the turn from Eugene Dadi's knock on.

And the ball deflected off Dadi in 70 minutes after a dreadful clearance from Oscar Rubio, to leave Mackie to finish from close range.

He said: "Most of the fans thought that it had gone in, and so did the players on the bench.

"I can't believe it didn't go in because the goal was gaping.

"A draw is a pretty good result after what happened in the CIS Cup on Tuesday night, but I'm disappointed I didn't just sneak it at the end when I had the chance.

"You have to look on the bright side though, and to be 2-0 down against the team we lost 6-1 to in midweek, and then come back to take a point shows some spirit."

Boss Ebbe Skovdahl was delighted with the performance young Mackie put in, but thinks he can still improve his game further.

He said: "Darren has one of the most important weapons for a striker and that is his pace.

"He still has to do some work on other areas of his game, but I think that his performance showed just how far he can go in the game."

Picture: Mackie missed the chance that would have handed the Dons victory

Under-21's in action

Aberdeen's Under-21 side are in action this afternoon when they travel to Ayrshire to take on Kilmarnock in a 3pm kick-off.

The Dons second string were last in action last week, when a double from Ivory Coast striker Eugene Dadi was enough to take the points in a 2-1 victory over Hibs.

Gardner Speirs' youngsters will be looking for their third win of the new season this afternoon, and the manager has selected a young squad for the match.

Under-18 striker Calum McHattie has once again been called up to face Bobby Williamson's side.

The Aberdeen squad is as follows: Peat, Hutton, Anderson, Hedderman, Belabed, Clark, Bett, Payne, Jones, McKenzie, O'Donoghue, Kidd, Duncan, Michie, McHattie, Carella.

Livvy lucky not to lose - Skovdahl

Aberdeen boss Ebbe Skovdahl saw his side come from 2-0 down to claim a point at Almondvale - and then declared Livvy were lucky not to lose. Skovdahl reckons Livvy were lucky not lose the match

The Dons fell behind to a first-half Barry Wilson penalty and a cracking strike from Stevie Tosh six minutes after the break.

But a double from Darren Mackie was enough to secure a share of the spoils for the visitors, and go some way to erasing the memory of The Dons' humiliating CIS defeat in midweek.

Mackie could have snatched victory at the death from a Ben Thornley ball, but hit the side-netting instead.

And Skovdahl said: "We had the best chance of the match right at the end, but we didn't score with it.

"We were much better in the second-half, because I think that some of our heads went down when they scored their opening goal.

"The commitment and attitude in terms of playing football and having the right mental attitude, were good.

"It was worrying when we went 2-0 down and I thought it was all going wrong, but the players deserve a lot of credit.

"In the end I think that Livingston were actually very lucky not to lose the game."

Picture: Skovdahl reckons Livvy were lucky not lose the match

Under-18s thrashed

Drew Jarvie's Under-18s were on the receiving end of a 4-1 thrashing by a young Hearts side on Friday afternoon.

Jarvie's men had been in excellent form so far this season, and their only defeat prior to Friday had been a 6-0 thumping against Dundee United.

However, the young Dons went down to a heavy defeat against the boys from Edinburgh at the Chris Anderson Stadium.

The only highlight of the day for The Dons was that young striker Calum McHattie was once again on target, netting his ninth goal of the season for the Under-18s.

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