Kilmarnock manager Angelo Alessio remains upbeat despite having to field a makeshift defence because of injuries and suspension.

"We have a lot of injured players and against Aberdeen it is always tough even if we have a full complement of players," he tells BBC Scotland.

"But we will play our own game and I am confident."

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Motherwell chief executive Alan Burrows insists the club have had no contact from anyone about manager Stephen Robinson amid reports that Hearts were eyeing him as a replacement for Craig Levein.

"Nobody has been in touch informally or formally," he said. "I’d very much like Stephen to remain so it’s business as usual.

"He has a notice period and just signed a new deal in the summer, so the club are well protected. But we’d very much like Steven to stay here because he’s done an excellent job. He’s almost a quintessential Motherwell manager for what we ask people in that role to do."

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Kilmarnock will be hoping attack is the best form of defence as they have three centre-backs ruled out at Pittodrie.

One of those, Alex Bruce, is suspended after the club's appeal against his midweek sending-off against Motherwell was rejected. Do you reckon his red his deserved?

Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes admits to being "frustrated" at Craig Bryson picking up an injury two matches into his latest comeback.

"He did a bit of work yesterday and he still felt his ankle," McInnes tells BBC Scotland. "I think he will be right for next week against Ross County, but there is a concern that we can't get him in game after game."

The Dons have had an inconsistent start to the season but won away to Hamilton in midweek.

"Hopefully we can build on a very good performance in midweek," McInnes says. "If we can get a winning run, we can start feeling more happy with ourselves."

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Livingston manager Gary Holt has admitted the managerial vacancy at Hearts is an "attractive" one but believes there are more qualified candidates than him for the job.

Speaking to BBC Scotland, he said: "I think it [the Hearts job] would be attractive for anyone because it's a big club. It has a big fan base, it has a lot of good things in place. But I think there's people that are more clamoured for than me and rightly so.

"I just go about my job. I'm fortunate to be in a job. I love the job that I've got.'

Hearts interim manager Austin MacPhee has confirmed that Donald Park has joined his backroom staff ahead of Sunday's Scottish League Cup semi-final against Rangers.

Park, who returned to Tynecastle last year to help run the youth academy after stints at Meadowbank Thistle, Arbroath, Hibernian, Inverness and the Scottish FA, has now made the step up to coaching the first-team squad.

“I wanted to change the dynamic of the backroom staff a little bit," said MacPhee. "Donald is hugely respected in Scottish football and I think he has something to offer to the first team.

“My experiences of sitting beside someone with Donald’s level of experience, like Jimmy Nicholl with Northern Ireland, is that sometimes they say less but it has more value."

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Leaders Cove Rangers' visit to third-top Cowdenbeath is the game of the day in League Two.

Edinburgh City, three points behind Cove along with the Blue Brazil, will be confident of taking advantage of any slip-ups as they visit bottom side Brechin City.

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The top three in League One will be hopeful of continuing their title charges against sides in the lower half of the table.

Leaders Raith Rovers visit struggling Peterhead as neighbours East Fife, second on goal difference, host in-form Montrose.

Pre-season favourites Falkirk are two points behind as they visit Forfar Athletic.

Aberdeen vice-chairman Dave Cormack tells BBC Sportsound: "The most important thing for us is putting a team on the pitch that's competitive and we give the manager as much as we can without speculating to accumulate.

"We've added £1.5m to the first-team budget in the last three years and built phase one of the Kingsford project.

"We've had a slow start to the season but in my time at the Dons I've never known an injury crisis like this. We just need to take a deep breath and be patient. If we win today we could go third in the league.

"We have a strategy and a plan - we don't do knee-jerks."

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Scotland midfielder Craig Bryson, who has had a horrendous run with injuries since joining Aberdeen this summer, misses out again after only managing 45 minutes of the midweek win away to Hamilton before rolling his ankle.

In his absence, manager Derek McInnes makes an attacking alteration by introducing striker Curtis Main to the starting line-up.

Mikey Devlin comes into defence in place of Andrew Considine, who drops to the bench.

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Kilmarnock are without Alex Bruce after the veteran centre-half failed in an appeal against his midweek red card in the 2-1 defeat by Motherwell.

With first-choice pairing Stuart Findlay and Dario Del Fabro being joined by on-loan Wolverhampton Wanders man Connor Johnson in missing out, Gary Dicker is likely to drop back alongside Iain Wilson, whose introduction means Angelo Alessio starts with a makeshift central defence made up of two midfielders.

On-loan Liverpool forward Liam Millar and Eamonn Brophy start up front as Simeon Jackson drops to the bench, while winger Chris Burke also starts as Mohamed El Makrini misses out.

Motherwell picked up a hard-fought 2-1 win over Kilmarnock in midweek and manager Stephen Robinson has rewarded the players by sticking with the same line-up today.

Livingston boss Gary Holt has carved up the side that threw away a 2-0 lead over Hibernian on Wednesday night. Ricki Lamie, Keaghan Jacobs, Steve Lawson and Scott Tiffoney come in for Jack McMillan, Stevie Lawless, Craig Sibbald and Scott Robinson.

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Hamilton manager Brian Rice makes just one change to the side that lost 1-0 to Aberdeen in midweek. Shaun Want comes in for Ronan Hughes - the defender has played in only one Premiership game this season, a 1-0 defeat to Celtic in September.

The visitors make four changes in response to their 4-0 home defeat to Rangers - Michael Gardyne, Lee Erwin, Keith Watson and Billy Mckay come in while Tom Grivosti, Sean Kelly, Joe Chalmers and Brian Graham drop out.

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With Dundee having beaten Morton last night, leaders Dundee United face a tough task as they look to re-establish a six-point lead over city rivals who have sneaked up into third.

Hosts Caley Thistle dropped down to fourth with that result, but a win would ensure that the top four are separated by three points at the end of the day.

There's plenty of intrigue too down at Somerset Park, where Ian McCall takes his Partick Thistle side, sitting bottom of the table, to face the Ayr United side he left last month to switch to Glasgow and who lie second top under new boss Mark Kerr. The 39-year-old was a coach in McCall's backroom team.

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The coverage is under way on Radio Scotland 810 MW, where we'll bring you live commentary of Aberdeen v Kilmarnock from 3pm followed by Hibs v Celtic at Hampden at 5.30pm.

Keep across all the other games on open all mics on 92-95 FM and stay right here for live text coverage of every goal, howler and talking point.

Motherwell: Gillespie, Hartley, Gallagher, Carroll, Grimshaw, Connelly, Campbell, Polworth, Long, Hylton, Cole.

Substitutes: Carson, Tait, Seedorf, Maguire, Ilic, Scott, Mugabi.

Livingston: Sarkic, Odoffin, Lithgow, Guthrie, Lamie, Bartley, Crawford, Jacobs, Lawson, Pittman, Tiffoney.

Substitutes: Stewart, McMillan, Robinson, Lawless, Sibbald, Stobbs.

Hamilton Academical: Fon Williams, Martin, Stubbs, Hamilton, McMann, Want, Gogic, Miller, Smith, Cunningham, Oakley

Substitutes: Southwood, Hunt, Davies, Hughes, Beck, MacKinnon, Moyo

Ross County: Laidlaw, Fraser, Grivosti, Fontaine, Kelly, Foster, Spence, Draper, Chalmers, Graham, Stewart

Substitutes: Dixon-Hedge, Kelly, Morris, Mullin, Henderson, Graham, Chalmers

Aberdeen: Lewis, Logan, Devlin, McKenna, Leigh, Vyner, Ferguson, Hedges, McGinn, Main, Cosgrove.

Substitutes: Cerny, Considine, Campbell, Gallagher, Anderson, McLennan, Wilson.

Kilmarnock: Branescu, O'Donnell, Wilson, Dicker, Hamalainen, Power, McKenzie, Millar, Thomas, Burke, Brophy.

Substitutes: Koprivec, Hendrie, Barlow, Lynch, Brindley, St Clair, Jackson.

Dundee banished an unwanted record last night by securing a third straight league win for the first time in five years.

That lifted James McPake's side up to third in the Championship, just three points behind city rivals United having played a game more.

To extend that gap at Inverness Caley Thistle today, the Tannadice men will have to cure their travel sickness, having lost three successive away games without mustering a goal.

There's a packed card of Scottish football to take us through the afternoon and into the evening.

First up it's three Premiership games, four in the Championship and five apiece in Leagues One and Two

Then the teatime treat is Hibernian v Celtic in the League Cup semi-final at Hampden.

Settle in, grab a cuppa and enjoy the ride - there's no better way to spend your Saturday.

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