Date	Saturday, 28 November 2015
Competition	Scottish Premiership
Fixture/Score	Aberdeen 3:1 Ross County
Venue	Pittodrie Stadium
Attendance	10,843
Referee	John Beaton
Comments	Match Report Report by Scott Davie for the BBC. Aberdeen 3 Ross County 1 Aberdeen recovered from a poor first half to beat Ross County and move to second in the Scottish Premiership. Craig Curran gave the visitors a deserved lead after latching onto Liam Boyce's through ball. Two quick fire second half goals turned the game around; Adam Rooney finishing Niall McGinn's cutback before Jonny Hayes found the top corner. Kenny McLean provided the third; playing in McGinn who outpaced the County defence and poked in a third. Ross County were in control of the game during an opening period where the Dons looked to be suffering from the sort of dip in form that has seen them slip from comfortable leaders in the title race to seven points adrift prior to this clash. The transformation after the break was amazing and certainly a major surprise for the Staggies players as they were picked apart down their right flank where all three Aberdeen goals originated. A Dons team that lost just three goals in their first eight games conceded 16 in their second eight so it was no surprise that manager Derek McInnes altered his side. Not that they had much time to settle into that new set-up before the Staggies hit the front after an industrious and determined start from the visitors. Boyce dispossessed Mark Reynolds on the half way line and while the defender claimed in vain for handball the Northern Ireland international burst forward at speed. He then played in Curran on the right side of the penalty area and from an acute angle he drilled in a fifth goal of the season despite Shay Logan's attempts to rescue things. By then Rooney had passed up a half chance created by McGinn's wickedly flighted free kick, but the Irishman hooked the loose ball high over the crossbar. The same combination once again left the County defenders spectators, but on that occasion Rooney could only steer a diving header wide of the far post. The Dons still looked nervy whenever County pushed forward, but the closest they came to a second goal was a long range free kick from Jackson Irvine that flashed well wide of the post. Whatever McInnes said to his players at the interval certainly worked as the Aberdeen players who left the field to a chorus of boos at half time were being cheered to the rafters within minutes of the restart. They played with more pace and aggression while McGinn produced a moment of magic to set up the leveller for Rooney with a dummy that left poor Marcus Fraser spinning. He then set up the Dons top scorer with the sort of perfect cross that invited the shot into the roof of the net that it received from eight yards. Two minutes later Hayes tormented County on the left side of the box and his shot come cross dipped under the bar and into the net for his fifth goal of the season. It was a stunning setback for the visitors given how well they played in the first half and try as they might to recover they only rarely threatened an Aberdeen side playing with more confidence. When they did Boyce sent a diving header from substitute Jonathan Franks too close to goalkeeper Danny Ward who managed to claw the ball away. Then just to rub it in McGinn got the reward for a fine performance by drilling in the third goal when stabbing in McLean's cross. Derek McInnes insists the credit for Aberdeen's second-half revival against Ross County goes to his players. The Dons were jeered off at the interval after trailing from Craig Curran's early strike. Goals from Adam Rooney, Jonny Hayes and Niall McGinn turned the game in the host's favour as they won 3-1. "The players did that themselves as they showed real responsibility in the second half and real determination to get the result," said McInnes. The suspicion was the manager had given them the sort of dressing down on the club's Retro Day that used to be the preserve of Sir Alex Ferguson. They certainly came blasting back out like a team transformed after the break and, within eight minutes, goals from Adam Rooney and Jonny Hayes had them ahead. Niall McGinn capped a fine individual display with a late third to take Aberdeen back into second place. "I couldn't have been more pleased with how they played from the first whistle in that second half," McInnes told BBC Scotland. "It was relentless, thoughtful, intense, intelligent and some real quality play as well. "The first half was more nervy than it should have been because of the poor goal we lost, but we still had time to put it right and the players did that. "They deserve all the credit. It's not about what anyone said to them." Aberdeen have now gone three games undefeated as they begin to find the form that had them top of the table and moved above Hearts and cut the gap on leaders Celtic to four points. "We recognise we play for ourselves and nobody is going to do us any favours so we have to deal with difficult situations and that's what we did," said the Dons manager. "There is an intensity and challenge when you play for Aberdeen to win games all the time and our supporters are used to see us winning. "We have only lost once at home this season. Now we are back in to second place so as things are we are doing alright." Ross County manager Jim McIntyre was as stunned as his players at their reversal of fortune after the break and believes his side need to be more streetwise to pick up points on the road. They have won just once away from home in the league this season and that was at Kilmarnock back in August, but McInytre said they blew the chance to end that statistic. "We dominated the first half and should have been more goals ahead at half time and it came back to bite us when we didn't," he said. "When things like that happen, it is sore to take, but we produced enough good things to have got something. "The goals we gave away were really disappointing as we can defend better than that and Aberdeen won the battles in the second half as we didn't match them. "I can take a lot from the way we played first half and it was much better than the last time when we were thumped 4-0 here, so there has been progress."
Ross County
Manager	Jim McIntyre
Starting 11	21: Gary Woods, 2: Marcus Fraser, 5: Scott Boyd, 10: Liam Boyce, 11: Craig Curran 1, 12: Richard Foster, 15: Andrew Davies, 18: Stewart Murdoch, 19: Tony Dingwall, 36: Jackson Irvine 1, 42: Martin Wood
Bench	31: James Severn, 4: Rocco Quinn, 6: Christopher Robertson, 8: Ian McShane, 17: Jonathan Franks, 23: Alex Schalk, 24: Raffaele De Vita
Aberdeen
Manager	Derek McInnes
Starting 11	Danny Ward, Shaleum Logan, Andrew Considine, Mark Reynolds, Paul Quinn, Graeme Shinnie, Kenneth McLean, William Flood, Niall McGinn 1, Jonathan Hayes 1, Adam Rooney 1
Bench	Ashton Taylor, Cameron Smith, Peter Pawlett, David Goodwillie, Scott Brown, Craig Storie, Josh Parker