Craig Brown laments growing Aberdeen injury list

Brown (right) is exasperated by his growing casualty list at Pittodrie

Manager Craig Brown is concerned by the mounting injury problems at Aberdeen.

Goalkeeper Jamie Langfield and defenders Zander Diamond and Rory McArdle were all hurt in Wednesday's 3-2 loss to St Mirren.

"Diamond has a stomach strain, McArdle dislocated his shoulder and goalkeeper Langfield has a badly gashed shin," a forlorn Brown explained.

"I can't recall ever knowing a club with so many injuries at the one time of the season."

Brown has a Scottish Cup semi-final with Celtic to prepare for after league matches with Hibernian and Rangers.

And he was without captain Paul Hartley and full-back David McNamee for the defeat in Paisley, along with long-term absentees Fraser Fyvie, Yoann Folly and Darren Mackie.

"Josh Maggenis too has a thigh injury, so we're running out of players rapidly," added Brown, who was upset with his side's defending against St Mirren.

Michael Higdon volleyed the home side in front, while a Hugh Murray own goal early in the second half brought Aberdeen back into the match.

However, Craig Dargo and Steven Thomson added goals for the Buddies before Rob Milsom's late consolation strike from distance.

"I thought we did enough to get at least a point but we conceded bad goals," explained the Dons boss.

"And it's hard to come back against a team that is battling and has a good work ethic.

"In terms of stats and possession, corners kicks and shots on target, we probably edged it but it's goals that count.

"Higdon's first goal was an excellent strike but he was so unmarked it was quite incredible.

"We were looking on and saying how can he have so much space to swivel and pivot?

"Our goalkeeper, Jamie Langfield, has not had a save in the match and we've lost three goals, so we need to look at ourselves."

There was better news on the injury front, with Peter Pawlett and Michael Paton returning to action at St Mirren Park.

"They played reasonably well in patches," was Brown's assessment. "It's very difficult to ask them to have a consistent 90 minutes.

"They need more games to get to the pace of an SPL match but we had glimpses of talent from both of them."