Hearts and Hibs return to Scottish Premiership play this weekend.

Hearts travel to Aberdeen looking for their first league win. They are looking for a new manager to take over for Steven Naismith, as Liam Fox serves as interim manager.

The Jambos have struggled in the first few months of the new season and currently sit at the bottom of the standings. They’ve just got one point on the board thus far.

Hibs will host Motherwell at Easter Road, looking to rebound from their 1-0 away setback to Rangers last time out. David Gray’s side is currently in ninth place in the division, with five points.

Here is a glance at the weekend’s referee appointments…

Hearts

Sunday, October 6, 2024, Pittodrie Stadium, 3:00pm kick-off.

Referee: John Beaton.

Assistant Referee 1: Graeme Stewart.

Assistant Referee 2: Colin Drummond.

VAR: Don Robertson.

Assistant VAR: Andrew McWilliam.

Beaton has overseen 10 games this season in all competitions. The 42-year-old was in the thick of Hearts’ 3-1 loss away to Motherwell in August, as well as Celtic’s match against Rangers in early September.

Fox likes to observe his players’ reactions and recently stated, “There were many aspects of the performance on Saturday that pleased us as a staff.” There were a few situations throughout the game that we can improve on, which is crucial. It’s always better to take anything from a game than nothing. It’s also necessary to take action rather than merely speak about it.”

He went on to say, “We can show the players what to do, show them videos and bits and pieces, but we also need to look at how we are in and out of possession.” “The key is how we approach the game.

Hibs

Saturday, October 5th, Easter Road, 3:00pm kickoff.

Referee: Matthew MacDermid.

Assistant Referee 1: Daniel McFarlane.

Assistant Referee 2: Alastair Mather.

VAR: Christopher Graham

Assistant VAR: Graham McNeillie.

MacDermid, 31, has played 11 games this season and has issued 41 yellow cards and two red cards. He last refereed Hibernian on August 4th, when they lost 3-0 to St Mirren.

Gray believed his squad deserved at least a draw against the Rangers in their last encounter. “I have mixed emotions,” he told the players. I will never accept losing football games, so I didn’t want them to be confused by my tone following the game, but there were many aspects of the game that I was happy of.

“We knew it would be a difficult start with Rangers returning off a fantastic result in Europe and 50,000 fans here for their first league game back, so we prepared the players for that. I believe we handled the situation effectively and gave them very little chances. We need to be a little more clinical; I believe we had 18 shots. We deserved at least a point, but I truly feel if we had scored that goal, we would have won the game.

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