ADAM Rooney is like any striker, according to Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes – he would only be satisfied on his drive home from the game had he scored.

That he did so twice when his overall play was average at best, must have made that journey so much more enjoyable.

His opener, a glancing header on 72 minutes, came at a time when Dundee had settled into a pattern that brought attractive football, not to mention some menace, to their performance following a first half in which they looked as if they would succumb to an Aberdeen outfit bursting with energy and innovation in this, the 250th meeting of these teams.

For Gary Harkins, the Dens Park playmaker, there was a sour finish to this compelling match. Booked in the 82nd minute, he was shown a straight red in stoppage time for upending Rooney in the area and the Irishman who drilled the ball home from the spot to seal the Pittodrie side’s fourth straight win in the Ladbrokes Premiership.

While Harkins claimed – at least to his manager Paul Hartley – that he had not made contact with the striker, McInnes was concerned only that his men had battled to the win.

“It was important that we didn’t allow the frustration of not scoring in the first half to overtake what we needed to do,” he insisted.

“They played a back five and we had to try and work round their shape. We had 10 corners in that first half and it looked as if a goal was only a matter of time.

“But when it doesn’t come, you’ve still got to keep trying to do the right thing.

“Once we got past the first 15 minutes of the second half, we started to take charge again and we asked for quality in the wider areas. Jonny Hayes gave us that when he popped up on the right. He skinned the full-back, put in a great cross and Adam did what he does best.”

McInnes’s side were dominant but slow to capitalise. Sure, there were pulsating moments when they were prevented from scoring by the agility of Scott Bain, the young Dundee goalkeeper let go by the hosts under Craig Brown and who has gone on to be one of the best in the league.

Twice, he managed to tip Aberdeen attempts over his bar – first from Niall McGinn’s cross-cum-shot, and then from a Rooney header – as the indomitable hosts underlined their superiority in all areas of the pitch.

The visitors had little option but to soak up the pressure and rely heavily on producing a shock on the counter, which seldom looked likely as McGinn and Hayes made them work extra hard to combat lively play and incisive passing.

Still, it was Dundee who came close to opening the scoring three minutes after the break with Aberdeen grateful for their young goalkeeper Danny Ward’s block of a shot from Kane Hemmings following Greg Stewart’s clever chip over Ash Taylor’s head and into the area for the striker.

David Goodwillie’s ferocious effort from the right was punched clear by Bain as the home side reasserted their authority and the Dundee goalkeeper once more delivered a stunning stop, this time from Graeme Shinnie’s close-range effort, but with the clock ticking down and Rooney’s run interrupted by Harkins, the striker’s spot-kick ensured the home side’s unbeaten run against Dundee in the league was stretched to 10.

“We should have stopped Hayes’ cross coming in,” Hartley said, “Then we didn’t deal with the Rooney header. We arrived with a game plan. We frustrated Aberdeen and they couldn’t really cut us open until near the end.