Ten-man Aberdeen closed the gap on Scottish Premier leaders Celtic to three points after an inspired performance against Ross County at the Global Energy Stadium earned them a 3-2 win, yesterday

Aberdeen were a man short for over an hour after Mark Reynolds was red-carded by referee Crawford Allan for a professional foul on Alex Schalk.

County took the lead seconds later with an Ian McShane free-kick but an Adam Rooney penalty and a Shay Logan goal in the space of three minutes saw the Dons go 2-1 up.

Aberdeen stretched their lead on the hour mark when Logan scored again from close range and although McShane pulled one back eight minutes from the end with a long-range effort the visitors held out for the points.

Aberdeen boss Derek McInnes praised his team’s character.

“I thought we played a lot of good stuff – our initial start to the game was excellent, it was one-way traffic. I don’t think (Aberdeen goalkeeper) Scott Brown touched the ball in the first 10, 15 minutes,” he said.

“The response was excellent from the players to go 2-1 up - it gave us something to hold on to.

“I thought we were comfortable for the majority of the second half. The third goal said everything – my left-back, who is high up the park, crossing for my right-back to score.”

On his part Ross County manager Jim McIntyre rued his side’s missed chances.

“I’m disappointed we didn’t make more of the chances we created. We got in some great areas,” he said.

“Aberdeen started better and put us under pressure but we defended well and made some fantastic opportunities and you have to take them. I think that was the difference in the game today, Aberdeen were ruthless when they got into the key areas and we weren’t.”

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