Brown praised the performance of goalkeeper Jamie Langfield

Craig Brown was relieved his analysis that St Mirren are liable to lose late goals came true as Rory McArdle's equaliser secured Aberdeen a replay.

"I did say to them that St Mirren do lose goals at the end of matches," the Dons manager said after the 2-2 draw.

"That is not through lack of fitness. I don't know if it is a lack of concentration. It will concern them.

"We were fortunate in that we got a draw from a game in which, in the second half, we played very poorly."

Brown promised changes ahead of Wednesday's Scottish Cup replay at Pittodrie and revealed that he and assistant Archie Knox had let the players know of their disappointment in the dressing-room.

I think we showed good fighting spirit and managed to find a goal Aberdeen defender Rory McArdle

"I can't repeat what I said and my colleague also had a word with them quietly and you know how quiet Archie is," he told BBC Scotland while praising his goalkeeper.

"We just did not get it going and obviously we will freshen the team up for the midweek replay and hopefully we will do an awful lot better."

"I don't think we can be as poor as we were in the second half and be so indebted to Jamie Langfield."

One aspect that pleased Brown was a developing fighting spirit, although he would prefer it to emerge before they go behind in matches.

"There's an attitude within the team that they'll fight and compete to the end, but it shouldn't be after you're behind that you get that response," he said.

"I can't understand why they can't play with that urgency when the game is open to be won.

"That's happened several times this season, but the urgency at the end is improving.

"I said that, if we were in the game towards the end, we continue to play, we will have a great opportunity.

"We've managed to score just at the end, as Hibs did, as Celtic did, but St Mirren are a good side and it will be a very difficult replay."

Brown said the "quite incredible" Dons support deserved progress in the Cup and that opinion was echoed by McArdle.

"On another day, fans could have gone home after 80 minutes, but they roared the boys on for the last 10 minutes," said the central defender.

"Fair play to the boys, we kept going, maybe went a bit direct at times. But, at the end of the day, it was effective.

"I think we showed good fighting spirit and managed to find a goal."

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