Livingston will be looking to take advantage of Aberdeen’s poor recent form and injury crisis on Saturday.
Neck and neck on points
While Livi go into the match behind the Dons in the SPFL table on goal difference, many will argue they have had by far the better start to the season. Despite losing to Rangers last week, Gary Holt will have perhaps been far happier with his side’s performance than Derek McInnes, whose side laboured to a 1-1 home draw against St Johnstone.
Dons injury crisis
With Aberdeen again failing to create chances last week, Livi will surely sense an opportunity to capitalise against a side missing key players in almost every area of the pitch. A threadbare 13-man squad trained for Aberdeen yesterday, while Livingston are almost at full strength.
While the Dons go into the game unbeaten in four, Livi are perhaps the form team. Encouraging wins against Ross County and St Mirren were followed by last weekend’s creditable performance at Ibrox, while Aberdeen have only a home win against County two weeks ago amongst their recent performances to look to for much optimism.
Team News
Livingston will be missing Lyndon Dykes after a red card last week, and Scott Pittman is highly unlikely to be risked despite returning to training in the past few days. Otherwise, Gary Holt has no fresh concerns.
Aberdeen, however, are in deep injury crisis. Having lost Scott Wright for the season ten days ago, both Craig Bryson and Funso Ojo picked up injuries against St Johnstone on Saturday which will keep them out for one and three months respectively. Ash Taylor remains a long-term absentee, while Scott McKenna and Stephen Gleeson are not yet at full fitness. One piece of good news for the Dons is that Jon Gallagher has been declared fit, with fears over a suspected tibia fracture proving to be unfounded. Dean Campbell will almost certainly start in midfield, with the possibility of either a five-man defence or a very unfamiliar face in the centre of the park.
Predicted line-ups
Livingston
Stewart, Devlin, Lamie, Guthrie, McMillan, Lawless, Jacobs, Bartley, Crawford, Erskine, Robinson
Aberdeen
Lewis, Vyner, Devlin, Considine, Leigh, Gallagher, Campbell, Ferguson, McGinn, Hedges, Cosgrove
What the managers have said
Gary Holt has praised his side’s commitment at Ibrox last week, telling the Evening Express that “we’ve been doing that every game and we need to keep at it, and keep enforcing it.” However, he cautioned against complacency against Aberdeen, adding “the day we take our foot off the gas is the day we receive a skelping. We can’t afford that.”
Derek McInnes, meanwhile, described the club’s injury as “the worst situation that we have had during my time here.” Nevertheless, he told the club website that “I am looking forward to trying and getting the right blend in there. I have still got a lot of good players to choose from and we will try and get the best way to suit us and our team going forward.”
How to follow Livingston v Aberdeen
No live TV coverage is available in the UK, but Red TV subscribers outside of Britain can watch the match. Highlights will be shown on Sportscene on BBC1 at 19:15 on Sunday.