Alex Burns hit his fourth goal of the season to send Motherwell on the way to a hat-trick of wins over Aberdeen and move his side up to fifth position in the Bank of Scotland Premier League.

The diminutive striker stroked the ball home from the edge of the area as Terry Butcher's side dominated and, after Steven Craig's 90th minute second goal, confirmed their superiority over beleaguered Aberdeen.

Steve Paterson's side have virtually nothing to play for besides pride. That is a view shared by the Dons fans as only 7246 turned up, the lowest league crowd of the season at Pittodrie.

Aberdeen were without eight first-team players, including defender Alexander Diamond and Phil McGuire, forcing Paterson to draft in 19-year-olds Richard Buckley and Craig Higgins for their first starts.

Both are out of contract in the summer and will be given the chance to prove themselves over the remaining fixtures.

Motherwell made a solitary change to the team which defeated Dunfermline in midweek. Goalkeeper Gordon Marshall, who has made a series of high profile mistakes lately, dropped out of the side and was replaced by Barry John Corr.

The Dons started brightly and created two great opportunities within the opening 10 minutes.

Steve Tosh showed his usual tenacity to rob Derek Adams on the edge of the box, but could not find Leigh Hinds with a low cross through the six-yard area.

In the seventh minute Paul Sheerin's deflected right-foot shot smacked off the post with Corr scrambling.

However, that was as close as Aberdeen came to scoring in yet another game where scoring goals was their major problem.

Motherwell, who had spent much of the opening exchanges pegged in their own half, took the lead with their first real foray into David Preece's penalty area.

Keith Lasley took advantage of Scott Muirhead's poor pass and laid the ball in to former Falkirk man Craig.

He then teed up Burns on the 18 yard line and his low trundling shot caught the Dons goalkeeper going in the wrong direction and the ball slipped beyond his left hand.

Taking the lead visibly lifted Motherwell and they began to dominate possession. Lasley went close twice before the half hour, first with a shot from the edge of the penalty area then at the back post from Craig's drilled cross.

Aberdeen had a strong penalty claim turned down in the 34th minute after Tosh shot against Phil O'Donnell's arm.

Referee Steve Conroy had a good view of the incident and judged that the former Celtic man, who is in his second spell at the club, could not have avoided making contact.

Preece had to be alert 10 minutes into the second half as Jason Dair, who gathered the ball 30 yards out after a nice interchange of play between Adams and Steven Hammell, directed a piledriver towards the top left-hand corner.

The Englishman did well to react quickly in the swirling wind, showing a strong wrist to knock the ball away.

The goalkeeper was beaten in the 66th minute but fortunately for Aberdeen it did not lead to a goal.

Burns raced onto Craig's pass and appeared to be set to add his second of the day after skipping round Preece, but the veteran ex-Partick Thistle man shot into the side netting.

He had another opportunity almost immediately afterwards, but blasted the ball off the goalkeeper's legs from only 10 yards out despite going through one-on-one.

The goalkeeper almost undid all his previous good work by gifting a chance to O'Donnell with a completely botched kick out.

The midfielder did well to keep his volley down but, fortunately for Aberdeen, hit it too cleanly and straight back to Preece's hands.

Craig capped a fine performance by slotting home with his left foot in the dying seconds.