Aberdeen fans who wondered whether David Goodwillie and Adam Rooney, strikers of different styles, could operate together effectively were given their answer in this one-sided affair.

With goals difficult to come by for the Dons so far this season -just five in as many games before this fixture - those two players started for the first time in the Premiership and proved a potent partnership, each grabbing a goal in what transpired to be something of an embarrassment for Ross County.

Rooney's 20th-minute opener followed an avalanche of Aberdeen attacks as Jim McIntyre and Billy Dodds, in only their second match in charge of the Staggies, discussed the inevitable; that they were not destined to see their hapless side produce a result at Pittodrie and that they have a mountain to climb in order to fashion a side capable of better.

Indeed, after County's Darren Barr had blocked Rooney's shot on the line and goalkeeper Mark Brown had shown us an acrobatic save of Ryan Jack's sizzling strike from 18 yards, it was a case of waiting for the inevitable, which was delivered when the Irish striker's header from Niall McGinn's corner-kick broke the deadlock.

By then, the Staggies had rarely ventured into their opponents' half and their rearguard was more like the Home Guard as they toiled to cope with Aberdeen's heavy artillery.

They were caught snoozing in the 26th minute as Goodwillie drifted into space to head home the cleverest of free-kicks from McGinn 20 yards out and must have realised then that they had reached the point of no return

The tempo may have dipped slightly after that but there was enough heat to generate a spot of aggro between Jack and his team-mate Willo Flood.

Their pushing and shoving of each other moments from the break brought them each a yellow card, though Derek McInnes, their manager, was unaware of the nature of the spat.

"It's not nice to see," he said, "and I don't want to just dismiss it. The referee handled it well and he was right to caution them.

"We want players to be demanding of each other and to speak to each other properly but they were kissing and cuddling at half-time because I forced them to."

Rocco Quinn's 18-yard strike looked as if it might give Jamie Langfield something meaningful to do in the Aberdeen goal. It didn't; the ball went into the Merkland Road stand.

Cold water was poured on McIntyre's half-time efforts to reinvigorate his side when Pawlett increased the Pittodrie side's lead five minutes after the break as a well-worked move down the right ended with Peter Pawlett firing home Flood's low cross off the legs of Michael Gardyne.

Later, however, when County's Quinn found space in the area his shot rebounded off Langfield's legs, compounding the feeling of dejection already etched on the faces of the faces of the visitors, though they were certainly relieved to witness a Goodwillie counter that ended with an empty net and a shot off the post.

The County performance merely underlined the enormous task McIntyre faces in his bid to mould a more capable side.

"It's a challenge," he said, "and that's why I'm here. We will improve but we need to give ourselves a chance in games and we didn't do that today."