Last updated on .From the section Football

Adam Rooney's 27th goal this term clinched European football for Aberdeen next season and moved them to within five points of league leaders Celtic.

The striker met Mark Reynolds' cross shortly before the break.

The Dons saw the game out comfortably against struggling Dundee United, despite finishing with 10 men.

Veteran midfielder Barry Robson, a former Tannadice favourite, was given a straight red card for catching Charlie Telfer with a flailing elbow.

United remain six points behind Inverness Caledonian Thistle, who occupy the final European place in the Scottish Premiership.

Rooney showed why he is the top marksman in the top flight this season with a moment of opportunism.

Robson (centre) was dismissed in the second half

Dons captain Reynolds showed real persistence to chase a Robson free-kick from deep that Jaroslaw Fojut thought was going out of play.

The defender's slackness was punished as Reynolds forced the ball across goal and Rooney was lurking to clip in his 17th league goal of the season.

It also made him the first player since Duncan Shearer in 1993 to score 27 goals in a single season for the Pittodrie club and enhanced his credentials for the end of season player of the year awards.

The Irishman went close a couple of times in the second half as well while United's injury problems intensified when Mario Bilate limped off with a hamstring pull early in the second period.

Robbie Muirhead took over and the former Kilmarnock winger at least forced Scott Brown into some serious action with a shot the Dons goalkeeper dived left to save.

That apart, the visitors, who were without John Rankin, Ryan Dow and Paul Paton, rarely troubled the Aberdeen defence as they slipped 22 points behind a team that they were within three points of at the end of January.

Aberdeen protested that Robson's contact with Telfer did not merit a red card and there seemed to be no malice in the incident but Derek McInnes's side had to play the final 20 minutes a man down.