Keeping pace...

Luckily, the bus was sitting on the forecourt at Pittodrie when the news came through about the cancellation at Rugby Park, unlike the Northern Lights supporters club who were virtually there, having left at 7.30am. All that needs to be said about the cancellation has been said, but it still confuses me how both Kilmarnock and Motherwell can both have heating problems. It is also difficult to understand why, when the pitch was clearly unplayable (as Sandy Clark deemed it to be) that an announcement couldn't have been made earlier.

Nonetheless, despite slipping down the table after Hibs' creditable and somewhat bizarre victory against Celtic, we are hanging in there in the top six - nothing to shout about, but something to build on at least. And with a home game against a poor Falkirk side coming up, we should be aiming for another three points.

However, for the next couple of weeks we will be missing the man that has made it happen for us recently, one Sone Aluko. While he isn't exactly winning matches on his own, he's been the outstanding player in the side lately, and is probably the most entertaining player at Pittodrie since Hicham Zerouali. The next two games (Falkirk and Inverness CT) will prove a test of what we can do without him.

And although questions about all areas of the team still persist, we are getting better gradually. Aluko's form aside, Miller has been excellent and merited his Scotland call-up, Mark Kerr was MOTM against Motherwell and for the first time this season is starting to look the part, Gary McDonald is improving and even Jeffrey De Visscher looked promising when he came on as sub.

Whether that says more about us or Motherwell remains to be seen, but the Christmas period is likely to define our season. With Falkirk, ICT, Hearts at home and Hamilton, a return of 10 points is certainly achievable. If we can win these games, we will undoubtedly make up ground on Dundee Utd, who face both halves of the Old Firm in a very difficult month. However, our following two league games are against Rangers and Celtic, and although both are at home, six points would be a big ask.

Last season, we gave ourselves too much to do in the race for Europe, and Motherwell deservedly got third place. This season, we must take points from the type of games we face over Christmas to make sure the same thing doesn't happen again.