Jimmy Calderwood believes Aberdeen have been hit just as badly as Kilmarnock by the loss of quality players in recent seasons.Killie, who could once boast Rangers duo Kris Boyd and Steven Naismith in their ranks, currently sit second bottom of the SPL and host the Dons on Sunday.

The Ayrshire side have lost several key personnel in recent seasons, with Colin Nish the latest regular goalscorer to leave Rugby Park when he moved to Hibernian during the January transfer window.

However, Dons boss Calderwood maintains his side are in a similar situation to Sunday's opponents when it comes to important players leaving for pastures new - shown by the fact Michael Hart, Russell Anderson, Markus Heikkinen and Kevin McNaughton all no longer ply their trade at Pittodrie.

Calderwood believes if he could name that quartet as his backline then Aberdeen would not have conceded so many goals this season, nor would Bayern Munich have scored five times on Wednesday night.

He said: "You can look at who has left this place through the years and if we had a defence of Hart, Anderson, Heikkinen and McNaughton, I don't think teams would be scoring five against us with that defence.

"That's the way football goes for us, Kilmarnock and probably everyone outside Rangers or Celtic, so you just have to get on with it."

Aberdeen travel to Rugby Park looking to bounce back from the midweek disappointment of losing 5-1 to Bayern in Germany.

That convincing defeat eliminated Aberdeen from the UEFA Cup, but only after the Pittodrie club got to the last 32 of the competition by taking on Dnipro, Panathinaikos, Lokomotiv Moscow, Atletico Madrid and FC Copenhagen.

Given the high standard of opposition the Dons faced, Calderwood is proud at what his players achieved in the competition.

He said: "All and all, it has been fabulous and you are hurting at the moment because it was 5-1.

"But if you look back to when we started in August, to get to the 21st of February, with the quality of teams we have played against, then we have not done too badly."

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