Mark Reynolds has backed Aberdeen team-mate Adam Rooney's candidacy for Scotland's player of the year prizes.

 

The Pittodrie frontman has blasted 25 goals for Derek McInnes' team already this season and leads the Premiership scoring charts with 15 league strikes.

And he is already being tipped to be among the contenders for the various awards handed out at the end of the season.

Celtic forward Kris Commons is barred from voting for any of his Parkhead team-mates so says his nomination for the PFA Scotland gong will go to Rooney.

And Reynolds insist the Irishman deserves to be mentioned alongside the likes of Hoops trio Craig Gordon, Virgil van Dijk and Stefan Johansen.

He said: "A striker who scores that amount of goals has to be doing something right.

"Adam has been massive for us this season and scored some important goals in all competitions, so it's nice to see him getting that recognition.

"We've always known he was a top player and that he's capable of scoring that many goals.

"Hopefully he can continue that form for a couple of years here."

Aberdeen's 1-0 victory over Inverness on Wednesday all but kills off the Highlanders' hopes of pinching second place from McInnes' team.

They are now 11 points clear in the runners-up slot, but Reynolds admits their title challenge has already faltered, with Celtic seven ahead with a game in hand.

The former Motherwell and Sheffield Wednesday centre-back is convinced though, that barring any major slip-up, his current side should claim their highest league finish in 21 years.

And he believes finishing as 'best of the rest' would be a bigger result than last year's League Cup triumph.

"It would be a massive achievement," said Reynolds ahead of Sunday's Rugby Park clash with Kilmarnock. "The club and everybody here should be rightly proud of it.

"Anyone can win a cup and while it's nice to have some silverware, it's a lot harder to show that consistency over 38 games.

"The performances we have put in have been great and just shows where we are going.

"Hopefully it's something we can build on for next season."