Craig Brown believes Buddies’ best signing will be in their dugout

Aberdeen manager Craig Brown believes one of St Mirren’s biggest threats will be in the Buddies’ dugout tomorrow.

He is a great admirer of his former Scotland Under-21 colleague, Tommy Craig, who became assistant to Danny Lennon at the Paisley club last year.

Ahead of the visit of the Saints, Brown waxed lyrical about Craig, whose long and impressive CV includes coaching spells at Hibernian, Celtic, Aberdeen and Newcastle.

“St Mirren are a good team with good players and Danny Lennon recruits well,” said Brown. “But I think the best recruit was his assistant, Tommy Craig, who has been a great signing.

“I worked with Tommy for about eight years with the Scotland Under-21 side We get on extremely well and I was pleased to see him go to St Mirren.

“He has all the attributes of a great coach; great man-management skills, honest, hard-working, very knowledgeable, he loves the game and he is extremely enthusiastic. St Mirren are fortunate to have him and it is going to be a difficult game. Danny’s team always tries to play football, we are aware of their potential and we will have to be at our best to win.”

Meanwhile, Lennon believes his St Mirren side must find improved levels of consistency.

The Paisley club have enjoyed a good week of results after grabbing a 1-1 draw against Motherwell, then cruising to a 5-1 victory over Ayr United in the second round of the Scottish Communities League Cup and Lennon hopes they can build on those good performances.

“For 89 minutes of the Motherwell game and throughout the tie against Ayr, some of the football we played was fantastic and we scored some wonderful goals,” said Lennon. “We need to reach the levels of consistency that we strive for. Last season our downfall was that when we put a result together we very seldom backed it up.

“That’s the message I am trying to get across to the players. There is no place for inconsistency here.

“The Aberdeen game is a good chance for us to prove that we are over these problems and that we can reach the levels that we desire.

“I certainly believe Aberdeen have the potential for a very good season and that they will finish above where they have in the past three campaigns.”

St Mirren have taken their former player, Franco Miranda, on trial as they continue their search for cover in the left-back position.

The 27-year-old Argentinian spent two seasons on loan with the Buddies from CAI in his homeland before leaving for Chacarita Juniors in 2009.