Scottish Premiership
- Venue: Dens Park, Dundee
- Date: Friday, 22 January
- Kick-off: 19:45 GMT
Coverage: Listen on BSports Radio Scotland; live text commentary on BSports website
Lineup, Bookings (0) & Substitutions (0)
Match Stats
Aberdeen defender Mark Reynolds is suspended following his red card against Ross County last weekend.
Midfielders Ryan Jack and Willo Flood both face a further four weeks out with hamstring injuries.
Dundee will not have new loan signing Arturo Juan Perez-Reverte in their squad for the trip to Pittodrie.
Defenders Julen Etxabeguren (eye), James McPake (knee), Gary Irvine and Daryll Meggatt (hernia) are all still missing for the visitors.
Reporter's notes
Aberdeen's players and manager are reluctant to talk up their chances of mounting a genuine title challenge to Celtic but their next two games will speak volumes about exactly that.
The defending champions are due at Pittodrie on Wednesday week where they were one of only two away teams to win in the whole of 2015.
St Johnstone, on two occasions, were the others which is a measure of how difficult it will be for Paul Hartley's side to be the first in 2016.
The Dons blew two chances to move above Celtic at the end of last year by drawing at home against Inverness Caley Thistle and Partick Thistle.
Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes |
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| "We've had a couple of good performances and results against Dundee so far this season but we will need that and more. Dundee's result last week demonstrates exactly their capabilities. They have players who can be match-winners." |
Now they have the opportunity to make up for that with a win that would guarantee them being no more than six points adrift of Ronny Deila's side when they clash.
Last weekend's win at Dingwall certainly proved they up for the fight after the disappointment of crashing out of the Scottish Cup at Tynecastle.
They showed real determination and skill to come back from the loss of an early goal and the dismissal of experienced defender Mark Reynolds for conceding the foul that led to it, to beat Ross County 3-2.
That made it six wins and three draws in the nine league matches played since they lost 3-1 at Parkhead back in October when Celtic lead stretched to seven points.
This game will be goalkeeper Scott Brown's first at Pittodrie since the 1-0 defeat against St Johnstone in the final match of last season.
But as the 30-year-old showed with some important stops last week the loss of on loan keeper Danny Ward back to Liverpool shouldn't be the blow some feared.
He and the entire Dons defence can expect to be tested though against a Dundee team whose strength is certainly going forward.
Dundee manager Paul Hartley |
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| "We want to be looking up the table rather than over the shoulder and if we keep winning that will be the case. But we're under no illusions about how tough it will be, although it's a fixture we're really looking forward to." |
They are arguably in their best form of the season after three wins in their last four league games including last weekend's 4-2 victory at Firhill.
That was the first time they managed back-to-back victories this season and you have to go back to November 2014 for the last time they made it a hat trick of wins.
They have also only managed one clean sheet in their last 15 games, hardly surprising with the disruption caused by injuries to key central defenders.
What they do have is the goal threat of Greg Stewart but even he is being outshone by Kane Hemmings, who has scored 13 goals in total and seven in his last four matches.
