First Team
Match preview: Saints v Aberdeen
14th April 2017
Friday 14th April
St. Johnstone will play their final game before the Scottish Premiership fixture split against Aberdeen on Saturday. Saints, who have already guaranteed a top six Premiership finish for the sixth successive season, have won four of their last five games in the league. A win could see Saints open up an eight point gap between themselves and fifth placed Hearts, who play Kilmarnock on Friday evening. Saturday's opponents Aberdeen are the only team Saints are yet to score against this season with both encounters at McDiarmid and Pittodrie this season have ended goalless. Last season brought many memorable encounters between the two sides, including a 5-1 victory for St. Johnstone at Pittodire and a 4-3 win for Aberdeen at McDiarmid Park.
Visitors Aberdeen come into the game on the back of a 3-0 defeat at home to Rangers last Sunday. The defeat came after a run of five straight wins, and cut their lead over the Ibrox club to nine points with six games to play.
Danny Swanson and Richard Foster are both available for selection, while Steven Anderson should also be fit for the match. Graham Cummins is suspended and Chris Kane remains sidelined by injury.
Saints boss Tommy Wright knows how crucial each remaining game is this season, as Saints battle to finish as high as possible in the league table to win a European spot:
"We need to keep getting points on the board to make it more difficult for Hearts to catch us," he said.
"We've had a decent record against Aberdeen in recent years. But we can't take anything for granted.
"We have a five point lead over them, but there's still lots of football to be played, including a game against Hearts. So it's important we're not complacent and keep gaining points to achieve our target of finishing fourth."
Match preview by Joshua Barrie