Last updated on .From the section Football

Aberdeen go level on 57 points with leaders Celtic

Adam Rooney up to 23 goals this season

St Mirren down to 11th in league

Adam Rooney's instinctive brace against St Mirren helped Aberdeen go level on 57 points with Scottish Premiership leaders Celtic.

The Irishman's close range finishes - his 22nd and 23rd goals of the season - keep the pressure on Ronny Deila's side ahead of Sunday's match with Hamilton.

St Mirren's John McGinn tested Scott Brown with a first-half header.

But the Buddies failed to find a way of beating the Dons goalkeeper and watched Mark Reynolds head Aberdeen's third.

It means the Dons have successfully negotiated their way through the first match of the 13-game mini-season that manager Derek McInnes had described on Thursday.

The Aberdeen boss, under relentless questions about whether his side can maintain their title challenge, stressed the good performances to date this campaign were no longer relevant, but the remaining matches between now and May are of the utmost importance.

Aberdeen's Kenny McLean greets his former St Mirren team-mates.

McInnes's deadline day signing from St Mirren, Kenny McLean, understandably had the spotlight shone firmly in his direction against his former club, but in the end it was the Dons' regular headline-grabber Rooney that crucially converted chances in each half to continue what is an extremely admirable goal haul this season.

Both, like so many before by the Irishman, were tucked home from inside six yards.

For the first, St Mirren's Stevie Mallan had cleared Rooney's header from a McLean corner off the line seconds before Reynolds made Mark Ridgers save well. But the ball worked its way back to McLean, who back-heeled for Peter Pawlett to centre and Andy Considine headed it back across goal for Rooney to stab in.

As St Mirren manager Gary Teale watched from the stands because of a touchline ban, former Buddie McLean also played his part in Rooney's second, scored in a similar fashion.

This time some sterling work down the left by Niall McGinn resulted in a deep delivery which McLean put back into the danger area for Rooney to score right-footed from a few yards out.

Mark Reynolds heads in Aberdeen's third and his third goal of the season

The former Inverness Caledonian Thistle and Birmingham striker was eventually substituted for Lawrence Shankland, but by that point in the second-half the 26-year-old had completely missed contact with the ball when the busy McLean had presented him with a hat-trick opportunity.

Reynolds did add a third, though, and it was his third goal of the season, too. The centre-half headed in McGinn's corner and was aided by a mixture of Ridgers' flapping and Sean Kelly's lacklustre challenge.

St Mirren were less threatening after the break than before, when McGinn's back-post header from Jason Naismith's cross forced Brown to spring into action and turn it away for a corner.

James Dayton also looked in creative mood early on but the appropriate final ball was rarely found in any Buddies' attacking moves.

Their on-loan Tottenham midfielder Emmanuel Sonupe felt he deserved a penalty when Barry Robson appeared to challenge him late - something referee Kevin Clancy decided was not worthy of a spot-kick.

A touchline ban meant St Mirren manager Gary Teale had to watch this game from the stand.