As the team prepared to head up to Aberdeen this afternoon we caught up with manager Gus MacPherson for an update on the week's proceedings and to get him to cast an eye towards Saturday's game.

The first thing on the agenda was the news that goalkeeper Chris Smith has been given the go-ahead to start training again as he has now recovered from a very serious knee injury.

Gus said, "The news of Chris being able to get back to full training soon is fantastic. He started doing some goalkeeping work yesterday and he will build up from there. It was his first day working with Paul Mathers and Chris is delighted, and be assured we are all delighted for him.

"Chris went to see who is considered to be the best surgeon for the type of injury he had, he has helped several Premiership players back to a full recovery over recent years.

"At the time of Chris being injured the timescale for his recovery was a bit uncertain as it could have taken anything up to a year, thankfully he was at the low end of the scale in the time he took to recover."

Gus also confirmed that former Saint David van Zanten is back training with the squad and while the player's future is uncertain the Saints gaffer reckons it is not very likely it will be with St Mirren.

He said, "David is in training with us. He is a local kid, he lives in this area so it makes sense.

"Everybody knows how we feel about David van Zanten so we've been more than happy to offer him training facilities to keep his fitness up.

"Whether things can be taken any further from that I don't really know but I would say that it is unlikely. But we've not spoken about that side of things."

As the players got onto the bus this afternoon Gus confirmed that two of his squad will not be available for selection for the Aberdeen game.

He said, "Mo Camara and Steven Robb will both miss tomorrow's game against Aberdeen. We played a bounce game on Tuesday and Mo's injury has since had a reaction.

"Everybody else will be available for the Aberdeen game."

On the upside, Gus reckons that his side go to Aberdeen in good spirits. And while he accepts that it hasn't been done in dazzling style he is hopeful that his side can learn from recent outings and go up north to continue their good start to the season.

He said, "It has been a good week's preparation. We've had a good chat with the players and training has been really good, so the preparations for this week have gone as well as you could hope them to be.

"We're heading into a period of playing three games in eight days but for now the most important one is the next one, which is the game against Aberdeen.

"We watched Aberdeen against Falkirk on Monday night and we spotted a few things that we will have to be guarded against like Charlie Mulgrew's delivery from set pieces and his threat from free-kicks. It will be a tough game but I believe we will be prepared for it and it is a game we are looking forward to.

"We have a squad that is very confident just now. The players were disappointed with last Saturday's performance and for me it is good to see that they are showing that disappointment and that they are looking to make amends for the performance.

"We are expecting a reaction tomorrow because of the disappointment of last week's performance, particularly our second half performance. After last week's game the dressing-room was very quiet - that is good for us as we have then got to make sure that we show what that meant to us by making sure we get a reaction from it.

"These signs are good as we aren't just accepting that we have had a good start to the season - we want it to be even better."

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