Diamond out for two months

Diamond had made an award-winning start to the season

Aberdeen defender Zander Diamond has been ruled out of action for at least two months after suffering a knee ligament injury against Dundee United.

The 19-year-old was named young player of the month on Friday and this week captained Scotland Under-21s.

But Dons manager Jimmy Calderwood reported: ""It's a bad one and he looks like he'll be out for a minimum of six to eight weeks and it could be longer.

"That's a blow because the kid's has been doing magnificently."

Diamond has been earning rave reviews for his displays alongside Russell Anderson as Aberdeen made an unbeaten start to the season.

But he was at fault for the United equaliser, when he felled Collin Samuel to concede a penalty that Mark Wilson converted seven minutes from time after Darren Mackie had given the Dons a seventh-minute lead.

He collapsed in agony moments after the spot-kick before being stretchered off.

"Everything was brilliant for him up to the game," said Calderwood.

"He was in all the newspapers and then he gets a kick up the backside. So that's why we've got to keep our feet on the ground."

Calderwood was happy with a draw at Tannadice even though it meant the team lost their record of being the only club in Britain not to have conceded a league goal.

"In the first half, we played well and hit them on the break, but we were a bit disappointed in the second-half performance," he said.

"Ian McCall brought on Derek McInnes to play alongside Grant Brebner and both are great passers and were running the show. But, in the end, it was a fair result."

More than 10,000 fans, almost 6,000 of them from Aberdeen, packed into Tannadice to see the rejuvenated Dons resume their north-east rivalry with United.