Aberdeen supporters will be keeping their ears to the ground this week.

Ryan Fraser has thrived on unpredictability this season and his latest move certainly caught a few unaware.

HE might privately consider this game to be an opportunity missed, but Craig Brown was in no mood to wallow on the negatives last night, instead reacting to a disappointing home draw with a bombastic declaration of intent ahead of the second half of the season.

FORFAR may not be high up on many people's lists of gap year hotspots, but Joe Shaughnessy certainly has no complaints.

The disquiet felt around Pittodrie is understandable, given Aberdeen's penchant for inconsistency.

IF Christmas is a time for giving, then January may well be a time for taking away.

Craig Brown's makeshift side – 10 players were sidelined through injury – coped with the extreme conditions and Niall McGinn twice found a way past Alan Mannus, St Johnstone's outstanding goalkeeper, to take the points and move Aberdeen into fourth place in the SPL.

Stewart Milne, the chairman of Aberdeen, last night side-stepped questions over the future of Craig Brown, saying discussions over a new contract for the manager would take place early in the new year.

Aberdeen have announced that they are to appeal the decision to send off Jamie Langfield on Saturday.

Josh Magennis was a youngster in Northern Ireland when Kenny Shiels first came on to his radar.

In a parallel universe, Aberdeen are putting together a team to light up the north-east, a unit that will provide a line of talent not just to make Pittodrie proud, but to put a bit of red into the Scotland shirt.

HE may have been reserved in his opinion, but Mark Reynolds knows only too well the quandary facing his younger comrade.

Money talks and Ryan Stevenson seemed to have heard enough when he left Hearts for Ipswich Town midway through last season.

When you're a goal in arrears and the seconds are ticking down on your time in the William Hill Scottish Cup, you need a talisman more than ever.