Craig Brown plans to give Jamie Langfield a start in Aberdeen's game against Inverness today. This will be his first competitive action for the Dons since he suffered a brain seizure 11 months ago. Langfield suffered the seizure at home last May but has played on loan at Forfar, but he is set to displace Wales international Jason Brown this weekend. Brown said: "Jamie Langfield will play in goal. He has been patiently waiting and he has done well in the practice games we have arranged. I would emphasise that even if Jason had have kept a clean sheet last weekend Jamie would still have played."
Langfield, who is out of contract this summer, was on the bench at Hampden last Saturday as Aberdeen lost out to Hibs in the William Hill Scottish Cup semi-final. Brown insists his players are determined to put the game behind them and finish the SPL season on a high, beginning with the first post-split game. With five games left to play the eighth-placed Dons trail seventh-placed Kilmarnock by one point as they bid to finish top of the bottom half of the standings. Brown went on: "We are not going to let the season peter out - we want to finish with a flourish. There was a lot of depression and despondency in the squad but that has cleared, training is bright, everyone's up for the remaining five fixtures and we are determined to do the best we can and finish as high as possible in the bottom half of the league. We have got to look forward and accept that it is in the past."
The Dons have had to cope with a number of injury blows this season. The latest happened on Thursday when left-back Clark Robertson hurt his knee, the extent of the damage still to be revealed after a scan. Striker Darren Mackie (illness) and midfielder Stephen Hughes (knock) are also out of the trip to Inverness, joining Peter Pawlett, Mo Chalali, Isaac Osbourne, Rob Milsom and Yoann Folly in the queue for the treatment room.
Midfielder Gavin Rae is available again after being ineligible for the cup game. Like his manager, the former Scotland midfielder is determined to finish the campaign on a high. He said: "We need to finish as positively as we can because it might get us further up the table and we can build for next season with confidence. You can't just down tools and we've got to get on with it. There's always something to play for in football, whether it's players out of contract trying to get a deal or the club finishing well." Inverness won 1-0 when the sides met at Pittodrie last month and Rae anticipates another hard game. Rae went on: "It will be a tough game. They beat us here the last game, which was massively disappointing for ourselves. We've got to be right up for it."