Scottish Premiership build-up & preview

1. All six games on Saturday at 15:00 BST
2. Aberdeen v Kilmarnock & Ross County v Celtic are test events with 300 fans
3. Livingston v Hamilton, Motherwell v St Johnstone, Rangers v Dundee Utd, St Mirren v Hibernian
4. GET INVOLVED #bbcsportscot

Goodbye for now

BBC Sport

That's all for now folks, thanks again for your time.

You can catch Sportsound this evening at 18:00 and Off the Ball tomorrow from 12:00, both on BBC Radio Scotland.

We will then be back with you from 14:00 tomorrow with all the build-up and coverage both online and on Sportsound of all six Scottish Premiership games.

See you then!

Stewart, Crichton and Iwelumo take to the Sportscene sofa

BBC Sport

Michael Stewart will be joined by Chris Iwelumo on Sportscene Saturday at 19:30 on BBC Scotland.

The repeat will be on BBC One at 23:20.

Due to the fact there are no games on the following day, there will be no Sunday Sportscene.

Leanne Crichton will on the Sportsene results show at 16:30 on BBC One, and she will also be joined by Iwelumo.

Sportscene Predictions: Amy Irons v Michael Stewart

Can Michael Stewart prevent Amy Irons making it three in a row?

You can check Amy's predictions by clicking play on the video below, and you can check Michael's by clicking here.

Think you can do better?

Sportscene Predictions: Amy Irons v The Pundits

Are eight teams fighting for survival?

Following St Mirren's last game, a 1-0 loss away to St Johnstone, manager Jim Goodwin stated "there's very little between eight" Scottish Premiership sides this season.

The Irishman believes Celtic, Rangers, Hibernian and Aberdeen will occupy the top four spots, but the remaining eight clubs are all "capable of beating the other."

Could we already be looking at a campaign where up to eight teams are involved in a relegation dogfight?

We observed all eight contenders here.

BBC Sport

Get Involved

@Aqueously: "I've been selected to go to the County v Celtic game tomorrow, bit nervous but I'm confident the club has put in place all the necessary protocols."

Who else is lucky enough to be attending either of the games at The Global Energy Stadium or Pittodrie tomorrow?

How much are you looking forward to getting back into your team's ground?

You have to do the dirty things - Robinson

Scott Mullen

BBC Scotland at Fir Park

Robinson also has stressed the need for his team to "win ugly" after a frustrating start to the season.

"We have the players who can dictate games but to get an end product you have to do the dirty things in the game," said Robinson.

"It's educating them. The boys I had a little dig at as a collective, they have really come to the fore, and that's how you turn things around."

SNS

Devilment at Fir Park

Scott Mullen

BBC Scotland

Stephen Robinson seemed on good form today at Motherwell's pre-match presser at Fir Park. Plenty of belief coming out of an international break where work has been going on to haul the team off of the bottom of the table, the manager talking about instilling "devilment" in his team. We shall see tomorrow against St Johnstone.

On a worrying note for Motherwell fans, he confirmed Liam Donnelly, who has not played since the opening game of the season, is out until the new year.

I don’t understand why we can’t accelerate this - Lennon

Jonathan Sutherland

BBC Sport Scotland

Lennon went on to vent his frustration about other countries accelerating at a quicker rate than Scotland in regards to spectators returning.

“I watched an NFL game last night, the opening game of the season at the Kansas City Chiefs.

"There was 17,000 or 18,000 in their stadium so I don’t understand to a certain degree why we can’t accelerate this when all the protocols and measures have been checked and checked again by the club.

“When we were playing in France they were letting people into the stadiums there. In Ligue 1 they have started, I think I watched Brest playing Marseille and I think there was five or six thousand in the stadium.”

It’s imperative for us we get our supporters back - Lennon

Jonathan Sutherland

BBC Sport Scotland

Celtic manager Neil Lennon is hopeful that both tomorrow's game away to Ross County and Aberdeen's home match against Kilmarnock will pave the way for fans to return to grounds as soon as possible.

Both games are being used as test events with up to 300 fans permitted to attend.

“It’s a good sign of progress and hopefully we’ll get our turn sooner rather than later because it’s imperative for us we get our supporters back in the stadiums," says Lennon.

SNS

“We’re disappointed that we haven’t had the opportunity to get fans into our stadium because we have been at the forefront of everything positive regarding this pandemic in terms of getting the game going again.”

“Hopefully this pilot scheme at the weekend is successful and we get the green light to go ahead with our games at home as well.”

Incidentally, St Mirren were supposed to be holding a press conference this afternoon but it's been delayed.

Worth keeping an eye on...

Chris McLaughlin

BBC Sport Scotland

As of 14:00, the SPFL hasn’t been asked by St Mirren for a postponement and they don’t anticipate a request.

It's unlikely they would be granted one.

I've heard nothing to suggest the game is off - Ross

Hibs boss Jack Ross says he has been given no indication that Saturday’s game against St Mirren in Paisley will be postponed, and is planning for the match to kick-off as normal.

“As far as I know the game is on as I’ve not heard anything to the contrary," says Ross.

"We trained this morning as preparations are as normal. I’ve heard nothing else to suggest the game wouldn’t be [on] so we will wait and see.

SNS

“I spoke a couple of weeks ago and made a couple of points about probably being prepared for scenarios and I think this is probably another one of them.

"There might be clear guidelines for certain scenarios. I don’t know the person that adjudicates or makes the rules, but I think in any walk of life when you have clear parameters in place everyone knows where they stand.”

It's been a smooth transition - McCart

Jonathan Sutherland

BBC Sport Scotland

St Johnstone defender Jamie McCart was also speaking to the media, and he was talking about the challenges of switching from a back three to a back four under his new manager.

“It’s one thing the gaffer got into us was the two different formations," said McCart.

"I think it’s [been] a smooth transition for us, I think it suits the players we’ve got and we’re all comfortable with it.”

“[As a central defender] you get a lot more of the ball in different areas. The way the gaffer plays he wants us to get forward as well. Personally I am really enjoying it, it suits me.”

SNS

We need to make sure we don’t look at league positions - Davidson

Jane Lewis

BBC Sport Scotland

St Johnstone travel to Fir Park on Saturday to face a Motherwell side who currently sit bottom of the league table.

The Lanarkshire side are yet to win a league game this season, but Perth boss Callum Davidson isn't fooled by the league standings.

“I’m expecting a tough game against Motherwell, I’ve watched a lot of their games, they’ve played really well," said Davidson.

"They’re a good team, and they’ve made good signings. We need to make sure we’re aware that we don’t look at league positions, where they’re sitting and remember what they did last year, because they’re a good team.”

SNS

And ahead of that game, Davidson has fully fit squad to chose from for the first time this season. Although he admits the international break came at a frustrating time, he says it allowed players who’d been struggling with injury to regain their fitness.

“The good thing for me is that we had three or four experienced players come back from injury, so they’ve managed to get a couple of good weeks of training and a game last week for them. So I’m delighted to have Murray Davidson, Chris Kane and Zander Clarke back in contention.”

We'll be positive at Ibrox - Mellon

Aside from the news that Shankland is back fit, Mellon gave an update on centre-back Mark Connolly who is subject to a Coivd-19 breach investigation.

“He rolled his ankle in the first training session on Tuesday, so he will be out for a number of weeks," said Mellon.

“In terms of the investigation, legally has to be done internally. If the club believes anything comes out of that, you will be the first to hear."

The United boss went on to discuss the challenge of facing league leaders Rangers on Saturday.

“It’s a great opportunity for us to go to Glasgow and put to the test where we are as a team," Mellon added.

"We’ll be positive. We’ll go all out to try to be the first team that scores against Rangers."

'Shankland's back!'

United fans, are you as excited as your manager about the return of Lawrence Shankland ahead of tomorrow's trip to Ibrox?

BBC Sport

'From the playground to the San Siro'

Earlier this week, Hearts full-back Aaron Hickey jetted off to Bologna to pen a four-year deal with the Serie A side amid interest from European champions Bayern Munich.

Hickey faces the prospect of making his debut in the San Siro against AC Milan, and the 18-year-old stated it would be "amazing" to do so.

How big a success will the young Scot be in Italy?

Teenage full-back Aaron Hickey says his move to Bologna is a "dream come true"

What's your goal of the month?

We know who the SPFL have chosen for August's player and manager of the month, but what's your goal of the month?

Click play and let us know.

Sorry, but any answer other than Rory McKenzie is wrong for me.

Relive the best strikes of August as the Scottish Premiership returns.