In-form Saints ready for Aberdeen clash

Tommy Wright and his Saints players will be looking to extend their unbeaten run to eight matches when they head north to Pittodrie tomorrow afternoon.

The hosts Aberdeen go into the match on the back of an impressive 1-0 victory at Ibrox on Wednesday while Saints shared the spoils with Hearts in midweek at McDiarmid Park.

Looking ahead to tomorrow's match, the manager is expecting a good battle with the Dons but believes his side can come away with a result.

"It's going to be a difficult game," Tommy said, "and they will be well up for it having played well in the final against Celtic before bouncing back with a win in midweek.

"They picked up a fantastic result at Ibrox - winning there which nobody else has managed so far this season - and they did it with ten men too which made it even more impressive.

"We've had a few ding-dong battles with them over the years and it's always a game that the players look forward to.

"Both teams will be desperate to win and from our point of view we're looking to maintain this run we're on. We know if we avoid defeat we stay above them and we're only six points off the top of the table with a game in hand too."

The match will also see the club take on some familiar faces in the Aberdeen set-up and the manager admits he always enjoys coming up against Saturday's opponents.

"There's a great mutual respect there," said Tommy, "not just between the managers but between the two clubs in general because of how well we've both done over a number of years at this level.

"We always enjoy pitting our wits against them and the players really enjoy going up to Aberdeen.

"I think last season was really disappointing in terms of our results against Aberdeen but we've picked up a good point against them earlier this season and we've had some good results up there in recent years.

"Hopefully we can get another one on Saturday."

On the injury front, the manager is hopeful he will be able to call upon left-back Scott Tanser who came off with a foot injury at half-time during Wednesday's draw with Hearts.

"Danny Swanson trained this week and so has Steven Anderson so that's good news. Brian Easton is making good progress but Conor Mitchell is still out and obviously Drey is missing.

"I think Scott is going to make it for Saturday which is a boost. Initially when he came off on Wednesday we thought he may have fractured his foot but following x-rays it has been revealed that he suffered soft tissue damage.

"It settled down yesterday and we'll get another look at it again today but hopefully he'll be available for selection tomorrow."

Kick-off tomorrow afternoon is at 3PM at Pittodrie. The referee is Don Robertson.

Click here for details about pricing and admission for Saturday's match.