Aberdeen 4-0 Ross County

Jonny Hayes struck to put Aberdeen ahead

Aberdeen remained second in the Scottish Premiership with an easy win over comfortably beat Ross County.

Jonny Hayes' fierce shot put the Dons ahead before the same player was subjected to a dangerous tackle that resulted in Tim Chow's dismissal.

Shay Logan doubled the lead for the hosts, tapping in after Graeme Shinnie's shot had been saved.

County's Michael Gardyne hit the bar, before Niall McGinn and Jayden Stockley added strikes for the Dons.

Taylor knock

The Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes was forced into an early change when Ash Taylor suffered an awkward twist when backtracking, but it is a measure of the strength of his squad that Mark Reynolds took over.

Taylor will face an anxious wait to see if he recovers in time for next weekend's Betfred Cup semi-final against Morton at Hampden Park, but his absence was hardly disruptive despite a defensive blunder by Kenny McLean.

The midfielder gifted possession to Craig Curran, but the striker rather summed up the Staggies' recent form in front of goal with a shot that failed to seriously trouble Dons goalkeeper Joe Lewis.

That was not the sort of chance you can afford to squander when the team had already gone over 300 minutes without a goal by that point, especially against a side with the pace and variety of Aberdeen going forward.

Hayes the tormentor

The Dingwall club did have a real let-off of their own after Marcus Fraser was booked for tripping Jonny Hayes and James Maddison's sublime free-kick was headed in by Adam Rooney from an offside position.

It was the last break they were to enjoy though as Fraser's rash early caution left him reluctant to get too close to Hayes, who fully exploited the situation to lash in the opener.

Two minutes later Chow marked his first start for Ross County with a straight red card for going in on Hayes with what looked like a stamping motion with two feet, leaving referee Craig Thomson with no choice but to send the ex-Wigan player off.

The only surprise was that Aberdeen only added a Logan goal before the break as it was more like a shooting exercise at times as the home side poured forward with Hayes and Maddison in irresistible form.

Logan was in the right position to clip the ball home after Scott Fox had parried a powerful Shinnie drive, but the visitors created a couple of chances of their own as the interval approached - Michael Gardyne hitting the crossbar.

Dons search for more

No-one could question the commitment that the County players put into the second half as they tried to find a way back into the match but Aberdeen always looked to have more goals in them.

Logan twice went close to claiming more for himself, but settled for setting up McGinn with a pass the Northern Ireland international controlled before sweeping the ball past Fox from 14 yards.

Then substitute Stockley pounced as Aberdeen made it five successive wins.

Niall McGinn (right) scored Aberdeen's third goal

Manager reaction

Aberdeen's Derek McInnes: "It's not easy to win five on the spin but the players have been excellent since that first one against Dundee.

"It is not easy playing against 10 men at times but the boys kept going, played some great football and made a lot of chances.

"You need to work even harder at times when you have a man advantage so we are all pleased that we got a good win going into the Betfred Cup semi-final next weekend.

"I was really pleased that Jayden Stockley came off the bench and got his goal as he has been working really hard in training to make sure he's ready to take his chance.

"The only downside is the injury that Ash Taylor suffered early on and we are hoping that he will recover in time for them semi-final but we'll have to wait and see."

Ross County's Jim McIntyre: "It made it a mountain to climb when you lose a player early. Tim (Chow) has to learn from that as it was a sending off.

"He went in with two feet and he didn't have to do that as he could have gone in from the side and that makes things tough against a really good side.

"We did have a couple of good chances just before half time and we needed something like that to go in to give us a chance.

"When the third goes in it's all over but it is up to the players to rise to the challenge when the likes of Liam Boyce and Alex Schalk are out injured as we have a good squad.

"The quality in the dressing room is too good for that not to come but you can never question the commitment and when we get the players going again things will be fine."