Today's St Mirren line-up features six new signings and manager Jim Goodwin insists they will help improve the club's situation after a grim League Cup group stage exit.

"Obvious the League Cup campaign was a difficult one," he told BBC Radio Scotland.

"We were asking a lot of the 12 or 13 players that we had available to us and those guys had to play four games in two weeks, which wasn't ideal.

"Thankfully we managed to get some work done in the last couple of weeks and I think the supporters appreciated the team's efforts last Saturday at Easter Road. And they can see the kind of quality we've added."

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Steven Gerrard makes three changes to his Rangers side after that impressive 4-2 win against Midtjylland on Thursday. Glen Kamara, Scott Arfield and Alfredo Morelos drop out. Steven Davis comes into central midfield, Sheyi Ojo joins the attack on the right and Jermain Defoe starts up front.

As for Hibernian, Tom James is missing through injury, while Adam Jackson and Florian Kamberi drop to the bench. Sean Mackie starts at left-back, Darren McGregor in central defence and Christian Doidge leads the line. Hibs fans will be pleased too to see captain David Gray on the bench and ready to make his first outing of the season since overcoming a knee injury.

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While the focus will shift to today's two Scottish Premiership matches, a nod of admiration has to go to the Parker family from Sheffield, who travelled the 820-mile round trip to Inverness to watch Arbroath yesterday!

Sadly for the intrepid Parkers, their side went down 2-1 to Caley Thistle.

Jim Goodwin has received a ringing endorsement from former St Mirren manager Jack Ross this week.

The pair worked together at Alloa Athletic before Ross moved to Paisley to guide the Buddies back to the top flight in considerable style.

And he believes Goodwin, who took over from Oran Kearney in the summer, can bring stability to the side.

"I'm probably a little bit biased but I'm delighted that Jim has the job now," said the Sunderland manager.

"He spoke to me a few times prior to taking the job asking little bits and pieces about it. I've left him alone since because I think it's important to get that initial period under your belt.

"I'm desperate for the club to do well. He's the right person for the job and if he's given the time to put his own stamp on it I think he'll go on to be a success there."

With the pacey players they can deploy on either flank, Rangers must fancy their chances of exposing Hibs in the wide areas.

Paul Heckingbottom is without his first-choice left-backs in Lewis Stevenson, while captain David Gray is in line for his first outing of the season off the bench. having recovered from injury. New signing Tom James faces several weeks on the sidelines after being clattered in last week's win over St Mirren.

That leaves veteran Steven Whittaker and 20-year-old Sean Mackie as the starters today. Whittaker has been one of Hibs' best players in the early stages of the campaign, but at 35, the former Ibrox man doesn't have the wheels he used to.

It will be interesting to see whether Steven Gerrard and Rangers look to use the speed of Jordan Jones and Sheyi Ojo to hurt Hibs.

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Rangers: McGregor, Tavernier, Goldson, Katic, Flanagan, Jack, Davis, Aribo, Jones, Ojo, Defoe.

Substitutes: Foderingham, Edmundson, Halliday, Docherty, Stewart, Arfield, Morelos.

Hibernian: Marciano, Whittaker, McGregor, Hanlon, Mackie, Mallan, Vela, Allan, Horgan, Newell, Doidge.

Substitutes: Maxwell, Gray, Slivka, Jackson, Kamberi, Shaw, Murray.

After that disappointing display in Rijeka, Derek McInnes has made four changes to his Aberdeen line-up, the most notable coming up front.

Sam Cosgrove, the 22-year-old striker who has scored eight goals in six games, isn't in the squad. We're not sure if the big forward is injured or simply in need of a rest, but we'll hear from McInnes very shortly. Curtis Main leads the line instead.

Elsewhere, new loan signing Zak Vyner makes his debut at right-back for Shay Logan, who gave away a penalty on Thursday, Scott Wright replaces Jon Gallagher and Connor McLennan comes in for Niall McGinn.

St Mirren looked encouraging at Easter Road last weekend despite a 1-0 defeat, and Jim Goodwin from makes two changes from the team that started in Leith.

Calum Waters, a new loan addition from Kilmarnock, replaces Cameron MacPherson, and Jonathan Obika, who made his debut off the bench last week, starts ahead of Danny Mullen up front.

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St Mirren: Hladky, P McGinn, MacKenzie, McLoughlin, Waters, Magennis, Flynn, Foley, Durmus, Andreu, Obika.

Substitutes: Lyness, Baird, MacPherson, K McAllister, Breadner, Djorkaeff, Mullen.

Aberdeen: Lewis, Vyner, Leigh, Considine, McKenna, Ojo, Ferguson, Wright, Hedges, McLennan, Main.

Substitutes: Cerny, Logan, Devlin, Campbell, Gallagher, McGinn, Wilson.

In short, very mixed fortunes for our Scottish representatives in the Europa League.

Rangers were seriously impressive against a physically imposing but technically slick Midtjylland, rattling home four away goals in a 4-2 victory that should be enough to propel them into the play-off round.

Aberdeen, by contrast, delivered a grim performance in Croatia. After battering Chikhura Sachkhere and winning a thriller against Hearts, Derek McInnes' men went down 2-0 in Rijeka and will have to overturn that deficit at Pittodrie.

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What would Hibs fans give to have Marc McNulty in their number this afternoon?

The effervescent striker scored seven goals on loan from Reading in the second half of last season, but Hibs couldn't manage to get him back this term.

Now at Sunderland in League One, McNulty says the Leith side's success this year may hinge on keeping hold of their "brilliant" head coach, Paul Heckingbottom.

"I can't speak highly enough of the manager," he told BBC Scotland.

"Him and the assistant probably were two of the best coaches I've worked with. They both like to be hands on, they are good one-on-one and I'm grateful they gave me the opportunity to play every week.

"I think Hibs will do really well this season and I'll be surprised if they manage to keep hold of him."

Any guesses as to when St Mirren last managed to beat Aberdeen?

With apologies to Buddies fans, it's been over eight years since they got one over on the Dons.

That victory came way back in July 2011. Nigel Hasselbaink - remember him? - scored the only goal. Current manager Jim Goodwin was playing for the hosts, as were Hibs defender Darren McGregor and our very own Steven Thompson.

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Rampant Rangers versus evolving Hibernian (a notoriously uneventful fixture); wounded Aberdeen travelling to new-look St Mirren...all things considered, it should be a pretty banal afternoon of Scottish Premiership action.

These matches have been shifted to today because of Rangers and Aberdeen's Europa League commitments in midweek, but neither is on the telly.

Not to worry, for we'll have radio and text commentary from Paisley, with updates on the action at Ibrox here on these pages, and all the reaction and analysis thereafter.

Strap yourselves in...

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