Tyrone Smith
BBC Scotland at Pittodrie

This afternoon’s game at Pittodrie pitches together two sides who will be hoping wins in the Scottish Cup last time out can help kickstart their league campaigns.

The Dons were victorious at Elgin City, while the Paisley team prevailed at Queen of the South.

For Aberdeen, it ended a 12-game winless run. However, it remains a dozen without victory in the league for Jimmy Thelin’s team.

Still fourth in the table, he will be keeping his fingers crossed that the win at Borough Briggs can represent a change in fortunes.

Eighth-placed St Mirren travel to the north-east looking to end a run of four league defeats and, like their hosts, will be looking for a positive spin-off after getting back to winning ways in the cup.

The home side has prevailed in the two previous meetings between the sides this season - Buddies boss Stephen Robinson will be hoping to buck that trend in this latest edition of the fixture.

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Kilmarnock manager Derek McInnes tells BBC Scotland: "The club has a good record here over the years. Managers always say, 'go and enjoy the atmosphere' here. That's the plan for us today.

"When you play here, you've got to back yourselves. Hearts have made a load of new signings, they're one of the clubs in the league who can tap into the market with some strength.

"Calvin [Ramsay] is a different type of full-back to the ones we've got. He gives us real confidence. It's up to us to find his best. He's a raging full-back, can go both ways at full speed. He can play that wing-back role as well.

"He's searching for his best form for one reason or another and he has a chance today to show it against wee [James] Penrice, who's thrived here."

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Ross County manager Don Cowie tells Sportsound he's looking for an immediate reaction from last week's cup exit at the hands of Livingston.

"I want them to get back to what we've done in the league recently," he said. "We picked up a lot of points over the New Year period and I want us to get back to that."

On handing 19-year-old forward George Robesten a first start, Cowie said: "George is a young player we have real belief in. He's got real pace and strength and those attributes can play a big part in today's game.

"It's not just about what he's done recently. He's been training with the first team for the last two-and-a-half seasons, we see how much he's developing and improving. He's worked hard to get to this point."

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St Mirren manager Stephen Robinson tells BBC Scotland: "[The weather] impacted us yesterday, we couldn't train. The safety of the players and staff had to come first and there was no way they were getting into training.

"We made the decision that we wouldn't train, we travelled when the storm calmed down.

"So, we got up safe and sound last night and everyone's had a good rest, we won't make excuses, what you do on a Friday isn't too much anyway. We'll be prepared, we were prepared from Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, so we'll be ready to go.

"Aberdeen's run probably says everything about this league. It's so up and down, things can change so quickly and we are going to be prepared for a very hard game against players who have been signed for big, big money so we have to be at the top end of our game."

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Motherwell manager Stuart Kettlewell tells BBC Scotland: "I wasn't pleased about it [last week's performance], that's clear to see.

"Supporters weren't happy so you have to make changes to see if you can bring a better effect to the game.

"I do what I do every single week, which is work a ridiculous amount of hours to ensure the success of this football club and to make sure we gain results - amazingly, we've done that pretty well over the last couple of years.

"I can assure you nobody's more disappointed with last week than me. If we've let ourselves down, like we did last week, we put our hands up and we look to rectify that.

"There's been a bug going around the football club, there's an injury in there. Callum [Slattery] is ill, as is Moses Ebiye and we will have an injury update with Archie Mair in the next couple of days once we have more information on that."

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St Johnstone manager Simo Valakari tells BBC Scotland: "The biggest thing was we are in the next round of the Scottish Cup.

"It was good to see people smiling but we've been back to work this week and we need to do things very, very well today. They will come hard today so we need to be ready for that.

"It is a new game, every game is unique. We've already played each other many times but it's a little spicier because we played each other last week.

"It's all about us, we need to do our football things as well as possible."

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Simo Valakari has made just one change to his St Johnstone side, who were 1-0 winners over Motherwell in the Scottish Cup last weekend.

Max Kucheriavyi replaces Jack Sanders in the starting line-up.

Stuart Kettlewell on the other hand has rung the changes for Well.

Goalkeeper Archie Mair is out, Jack Vale is suspended while Kai Andrews, Kofi Balmer, Dan Casey and Ewan Wilson are all on the bench, as is new signing Dom Thompson and recalled keeper Matty Connelly.

Ellery Balcombe, Liam Gordon, Stephen O'Donnelly, Tom Sparrow, Harry Paton and Tony Watt are in from the start.

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Don Cowie makes four alterations from the Scottish Cup defeat at home to Livingston last week.

Zac Ashworth and Jonathan Tomkinson make their first starts after signing this month, as does 19-year-old George Robesten, whose loan spell at Brora Rangers has been cut short.

Captain Connor Randall returns to the starting XI.

Hibs make five changes from the cup win against Clydebank. Chris Cadden and Nicky Cadden return in the wing-back berths, while Nectarios Triantis steps back into midfield. Josh Campbell also comes back in and Dwight Gayle partners Martin Boyle in attack.

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Hearts boss Neil Critchley tells BBC Scotland about when his two new signings - Michael Steinwender and Sander Kartum - will be available: "Hopefully, sooner rather than later.

"They both trained this morning. They're at a different stage physically because their seasons finished end of November, early December. They've had their off season. They're returning to their pre-season.

"We have to get them up to speed as soon as possible and as safely as possible. That's a balancing act we have to think about every day. We're all keen to see them."

On future transfers, Critchley added: "I can't give any definites. There's nothing imminent at this moment coming in. We have a big squad at the moment and I can't guarantee regular football for some of them, so they might leave."

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Hearts make two changes from the side that beat Brechin City in the Scottish Cup last weekend but the main story is Lawrence Shankland being back on the bench after a calf injury.

Blair Spittal and James Wilson are recalled, with Kenneth Vargas and Yan Dhanda dropping back to the bench.

Kilmarnock are forced to change goalkeepers after another injury to Robby McCrorie, with Kieran O'Hara deputising once more.

Calvin Ramsay makes a first start since joining on loan from Kilmarnock, with Kyle Magennis replacing Liam Donnelly in midfield.

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Aberdeen manager Jimmy Thelin makes five changes to the side that battled past Elgin City in the Scottish Cup.

Leighton Clarkson, Topi Keskinen, Jeppe Okkels and Graeme Shinnie all return to the starting XI with striker Pape Habib Gueye also making his return to the XI for the first time since mid-September.

Out go Peter Ambrose, Luis 'Duk' Lopes, Shayden Morris, Ante Palaversa and Dante Polvara.

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Stephen Robinson has made just two changes to the St Mirren side that triumphed over Queen of the South in the cup.

Caolan Boyd-Munce and Richard Taylor come back into the starting side, with Alex Iacovitti and Oisin Smyth dropping out.

Attacker Callum Penman, 17, retains his place in the Buddies' line-up.

The flag at Aberdeen's Pittodrie Stadium is flying at half mast today in memory of former manager Jimmy Calderwood, who passed away earlier this month.

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Aberdeen manager Jimmy Thelin tells BBC Scotland: "You always try to be the best team, I think, we can start with against a certain opponent and the best way to win the game, and that's what we always try to do in every game.

"I can say everybody's working so hard right now in the club to take care of these challenges we have, on the training pitch, how we analyse the games, how we try to improve our team and also in the windows.

"So I'm proud how we're trying to get better all the time and the pushing we have inside the club and the staff and the players. So, I'm looking forward for the future."

On Pape Gueye returning to the starting line-up, he adds: "Of course, I hope that [he recaptures his early season form] but we also have to give him time.

"We have to understand that his way back to perform is to get the minutes and get better and better, but he's ready."

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Dundee, who are not in action today after their game against Celtic in Glasgow was postponed, have announced the departure of forward Curtis Main "after both parties mutually agreed to terminate his contract".

Former Aberdeen, Motherwell and St Mirren forward Main, 32, joined Dundee just over a year ago and scored six times in 35 games.

"We want to thank Curtis for his service to the club in the past year and we wish him all the best for the rest of his career," said Dundee on X.

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Some January transfer news. Motherwell have signed defender Dom Thompson on a short-term deal until the end of the season and he features on the bench at McDiarmid Park this afternoon.

Thompson, 24, arrives at Fir Park after his spell at Blackpool came to an end. The left-back has also featured for Brentford, Swindon Town, Ipswich Town and Forest Green Rovers.

Meanwhile, goalkeeper Matty Connelly has been temporarily recalled from East Kilbride but Well say the 21-year-old will soon be back at Kilby. Connelly is also among the substitutes in Perth.

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St Johnstone: Fisher, Wright, Curtis, Mikulic, Douglas, Sprangler, Holt, Kucheriavyi, Griffith, Carey, Kirk.

Substitutes: Sinclair, Raymond, Clark, Essel, Sidibeh, Steven, Smith, Kimpioka, Franczak.

Motherwell: Balcombe, Kaleta, Gordon, Blaney, O'Donnell, Halliday, Sparrow, Paton, Nicholson, Maswanhise, Watt.

Substitutes: Connelly, Balmer, Zdravkovski, Casey, Koutroumbis, Wilson, Andrews, Thompson, Armstrong.

Ross County: Amissah, Wright, Campbell, Tomkinson, Brown, Randall, Nisbet, Ashworth, Chilvers, Robesten, White.

Substitutes: Laidlaw, Allardice, Hale, Phillips, Harmon, Telfer, Smith, MacLeod, Reid.

Hibernian: Smith, O'Hora, Bushiri, Iredale, C Cadden, N Cadden, Triantis, Levitt, Campbell, Boyle, Gayle.

Substitutes: Bursik, Miller, Kwon, Bowie, Obita, Moriah-Welsh, Hoilett, Molotnikov, Kuharevich.

Annan Athletic v Montrose will kick-off at 16:00 GMT because of travel issues for the visitors.

Hearts: Gordon, Forrester, Halkett, McCart, Penrice, Grant, Baningime, Devlin, Spittal, Wilson, Kabangu.

Substitutes: Clark, Shankland, Forrest, Boateng, Dhanda, Neilson, Drammeh, Vargas, Taylor.

Kilmarnock: O'Hara, Ramsay, Mayo, Wright, Deas, Ndaba, Polworth, Magennis, Murray, Wales, Watkins.

Substitutes: Glavin, Armstrong, Watson, Mackay-Steven, Anderson, Donnelly, E Brown, Brannan, A Brown.

Aberdeen: Doohan, Devlin, Tobers, Rubezic, Jensen, Shinnie, Helte Nilsen, Clarkson, Okkels, Keskinen, Gueye

Substitutes: Ritchie, MacKenzie, Nisbet, Duk, Palaversa, Morris, Dorrington, Boyd, Ambrose

St Mirren: Hemming, Tanser, Taylor, O'Hara, Mandron, Gogic, Boyd-Munce, Olusanya, Fraser, Penman, Phillips

Substitutes: Urminsky, Kenny, John, Bwomono, Smyth, Kiltie, Scott, Mooney, Oseni