A win in Saturday's trip to Falkirk is vital, so it's rather worrying to see we've failed to score in any of the three league games that this weekend's official, Dougie McDonald, has been in charge of.

The game's in question are our goalless draw with Dundee United at the start of the season, a similar game against Motherwell a few weeks ago and a 2-0 defeat to them at Fir Park in January. The only bright spot is a League Cup win over Kilmarnock back in September, where we scored twice.

Last season, Mr McDonald did just one Saints game - and it was away at Falkirk. Despite being in terrible form, we won 2-1 and the Bairns had Jackie McNamara sent off for a shocking challenge on Jim Hamilton.

This official's other Falkirk games last season had mixed results for the Bairns. They won a Scottish Cup semi-final against Dunfermline and an earlier game against Hearts, in which each side finished with 10 men. However, they also lost to Dundee United and Rangers.

As Mr McDonald has a fairly lengthy track record with both Saints and Falkirk, there's no point going over old ground again so here's a link to the article from last season's game between the two sides: http://www.stmirren-mad.co.uk/roll/ed16/know_the_ref__falkirk_away_420261/index.shtml

This season, Mr McDonald is averaging less than a red card every five games - and he hasn't sent anyone off since the controversial Old Firm game at the end of February.