Former Aberdeen striker Adam Rooney hails his time at Pittodrie as the most enjoyable period of his career.
The prolific ex-Dons hitman, now with Solihull Moors, told RedTV winning League Cup in 2014 and being part of high-flying Aberdeen teams made it a successful period.
Rooney scored 88 goals in 197 games for Aberdeen and remains a firm favourite of supporters after his four-year stint in the north-east.
He said: “It was probably my most successful and enjoyable time. I really enjoyed being at Inverness when I was younger, I had a great season at Birmingham and got to experience the Europa League.
“The success here – winning a cup and finishing second to a very strong Celtic team was success at the time. We started a family up there so we’ll always have ties there. We’ve got friends there we still keep in contact with.
“I really enjoyed Groningen away. I think there was a lot of talk in the press at the time from their players saying they were 95 per cent through. We went over there and got a good result.
“Beating Celtic is always nice, beating Rangers for the first time in 20-odd years was a good experience. Getting hat-tricks for the club. I had great times here and I’d never have anything bad to say about Aberdeen.
“The disappointment was losing semi-finals and finals. Unfortunately we ran into a Celtic team that was unbelievable – I don’t think people appreciated how good that side was. They lifted their game against us at that time as well.
“We wish we won more trophies but there’s no reason to say Aberdeen can’t go on and win some in the next few years either. Hopefully the club can go on and get a couple more trophies after seeing the success St Johnstone had this year.”
Rooney joined the Dons from Oldham Athletic in January 2014, having previously bagged goals in a three-year stint with Caley Thistle. He had also turned out for Stoke City and Birmingham.
The 33-year-old left Aberdeen in 2018 for Salford City and help the club achieve promotion to the Football League for the first team. He joined Solihull in 2020.
Rooney remains in contact with some of his old Dons team-mates, including Niall McGinn who is closing in on his goal tally.
He added: “I still keep in touch with a few of the lads. It was brilliant to see Andy (Considine) get into the Scotland squad and I was gutted for him that he didn’t make it to the Euros. It would have been a brilliant story.
“We had a good group. When you’re in a club and have success together, you make friendships that tend to last a bit longer than if you’re going to different clubs.
“It was a great group of lads – the club did that side of it very well in terms of recruitment. You had good characters with experience that ran the dressing room.”