Home Games The Bedrock Of Success

Aberdeen's Shay Logan hopes home comforts can help the Pittodrie side keep on winning and staying in second spot in the Scottish Premiership. The Dons play at Pittodrie in five of their last eight fixtures before the split. Rangers lost in last night's game against Inverness so stay six points behind the Dons who can increase the gap if they avoid losing today. Aberdeen have lost only twice in the league in the Granite City this season, both times to runaway league leaders Celtic, and it is that home form which encourages the defender.

Shay Logan (c) Jeff Holmes PA Images

He said: "There is no reason why we can't stay in second spot and I am confident we will stay there but there are still 13 games to go and plenty of points still available," he said.  We have to take it game by game. At the end of the season if you finish in second or third place, it is normally a fair reflection of what has happened during the season. We have five home games coming up before the split and every team prefers playing at home so hopefully that will help us. It is a good chance to pick up some points. We have a good home record and teams know it is tough when they come here. But we take it game by game."

Manager Derek McInnes has a full squad to choose from with Graeme Shinnie, Jayden Stockley and Peter Pawlett all hoping to secure a place in the starting 11 after coming off the bench to help the Dons win at Kilmarnock last weekend. Frank Ross is added to the squad after missing the trip to Rugby Park with a knock.

Dutchman Alex Schalk believes a win at Pittodrie on Saturday could be the spark Ross County need to halt their run of misery.  The Highlanders have won just one game since the turn of the year and none at all in their last five opportunities to pick up three points. They must now take on an in-form Aberdeen side still buzzing from their recent seven-goal demolition job on Motherwell and Sunday's come-from-behind triumph over Kilmarnock. However, Schalk thinks a win over Dons in the Granite City will set off a reversal of fortunes for Jim McIntyre's Staggies.

He said: "Our recent results against Aberdeen have been quite good. We played them in the Scottish Cup a couple of weeks ago and lost 1-0. The game was a bit of a scrap and the goal we lost was unlucky.  But we know we can beat them. We beat them last year at Pittodrie. It's always good to go to grounds like that and get results. And we need results now. We have no excuses left, we just need to get the points.  Maybe we are a bit down in confidence right now but we just need one moment to change that and turn us round 180 degrees."