Niall McGinn has set his sights on eclipsing Adam Rooney’s 88 goals for Aberdeen.
The Northern Ireland moved to within striking distance of equalling his former Dons team-mate’s career tally on Wednesday as he scored his 85th goal for the club in the 2-2 draw with Kilmarnock at Rugby Park.
It seems Rooney, now at Salford City, is keeping a close eye on McGinn’s progress despite leaving the Dons 18 months ago and McGinn would love nothing more than to silence the teasing texts from his former team-mate once and for all.
McGinn said: “I was pleased to have scored another goal and to have edged my way closer to Adam Rooney on the all-time AFC scoring list.
“Adam is always onto me. Anytime he sees my name coming up on the scoresheet, he always sends me a message after the game.
“I would like to catch him but I would have preferred to have got the three points.”
The Dons left Rugby Park on Wednesday with mixed emotions, having rallied from 2-0 down to earn a draw and McGinn hopes his side can capitalise on the comeback by getting back to winning ways against Hibernian at Pittodrie tomorrow.
He said: “We dust ourselves down and if we can beat Hibs on Saturday then it will have been a good week after getting to the semi-finals and battling back to win a point here.
“Hibs will bring a good number of fans which will help create an atmosphere. Hopefully our fans can get right behind us and help us start the game well.
“Coming off the back of a nice result at the weekend we wanted to make this a good week for ourselves, especially with Hibs coming to Aberdeen.”
Aberdeen’s response to the dire situation they found themselves in after 25 minutes was encouraging and while pleased to take a point McGinn believes his side did not deserve to be 2-0 down following referee Alan Newlands’ decision to award a penalty for handball by Ash Taylor.
He said: “Two goals down, and coming back to draw the game, we have to take the point and move on.
“We actually started okay but then lost the goal.
“I thought at the time the penalty decision was very soft. I thought Ash’s hands were by his side. To make it worst, he has also received a yellow carded him as well.
“Kilmarnock are a good side and dangerous when they attack you. We defended ok later on but we are disappointed with the way we gave away the second goal.
“The goal before half time was very important to get us back into the game.”
