Striker Rooney plays to the Town audience (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Striker Rooney plays to the Town audience

6:00am Monday 24th September 2012 in Sport By Andy Warren

Adam Rooney

ADAM Rooney was just happy to be able to celebrate in front of the Swindon fans after scoring Town’s final goal in their 4-0 victory over Bournemouth.

The Irish striker netted his first goal in Town colours last Saturday at Carlisle, but an accident on the M6 meant the majority of the travelling Robins were not inside Brunton Park to see it.

But Rooney’s strike against the Cherries came in front of a packed Town End, and the 24-year-old was happy to put the gloss on an impressive win and take the adulation of his new fans for the first time.

“It is always good to score in front of your home fans, especially after I scored last week at Carlisle when not many of our fans were there because of the accident,” he said.

“It was good to finish off a good performance from the team, and a goal is a goal.

“If it is like Ritchie’s from 40-yards or like mine from six yards it doesn’t matter, although I am sure Matt will get a little bit more credit.”

Rooney is now itching to force his way into the starting line-up, but won’t get that chance in Tuesday night’s Capital One Cup tie with Burnley because he is cup-tied.

“The main thing is that the performance and work rate is there, and we had Benson on the bench who didn’t come on who has scored a lot of goals in his career,” he said.

“He has done well in the last few weeks but that just shows the competition for places we have here and we need that all over the pitch.

“I won’t be playing on Tuesday because I am cup-tied, even though I wish I wasn’t, but whoever plays will give 100 per cent and hopefully we can get another win.”

The striker was impressed with the way his fellow Robins all-but secured victory against Bournemouth before he was brought on to replace James Collins after half-time.

“I think we dominated the game from the outset, and we tried to start the game like we did against Portsmouth, and the lads were right at it and we started with a lot of pressure,” he said.

“Ritchie scored a great goal and then there was another great ball in from Robbo (Gary Roberts) for Willo’s (Andy Williams) goal, and it was convincing at half-time and we ended the job in the second half.

“It was a great team performance and we didn’t slack up like we did against Portsmouth, because we got a bit sloppy and let them back into the game, but that didn’t happen this time and we closed the game out.

“We showed work rate for 90 minutes and everyone kept right on because we wanted to get back to winning ways at home.”