Former Aberdeen star says strong start is 'no fluke' as Scottish clubs prepare for legal battle

Hibs and Hearts will each be looking to give their season a much needed shot in the arm when they play in the Scottish Premiership this weekend. Hibs will face St. Mirren at Easter Road on Saturday, while Hearts are set to take on Rangers on Sunday - in the meantime, let’s take a look at all the biggest rumours from around Scotland’s top division.

A former Aberdeen player has praised the Dons for their strong start to the season - meanwhile, a slew of lower league clubs in Scotland are ‘threatening’ legal action over a plastic pitch ban.

Joe Lewis lauds Aberdeen for positive start in Scottish Premiership

Joe Lewis was full of praise for Aberdeen when he was recently spoken to. He lauded the passion being shown from the players and believes their strong start is ‘no fluke’ and is not ‘temporary’.

Speaking in an interview featured in the Press and Journal, Lewis said: “At the moment, you are 28 points out of a possible 30. It’s incredible. Watching the Rangers game, it was no fluke.

“You can criticise Rangers all you want, but they’ve got a lot of money’s worth of players in their team. They have got quality, but Aberdeen didn’t allow them time and space on the ball. It doesn’t feel like it is temporary at the moment.

“For me, they have to be favourites for second at least now. The longer they carry this on, you just have to hope Celtic get side tracked by European football and they have a dip. Aberdeen aren’t going to win nine league games out of ten all season, but they’ve got the basics and foundation of a really strong team.

“Every time there’s a 50/50, you feel like they’re going to come out with it. Jimmy Thelin has just instilled this belief in the players and it’s snowballed. It feels like every time they go to press someone, they are going to win the ball or the opposition are going to kick it out of play.”

Lewis played for Aberdeen between the years of 2018 and 2023, making 271 Scottish Premiership appearances during that time. Outside of Pittodrie, he featured for clubs such as Morecambe, Peterborough United and Blackpool.

Scottish clubs threatening legal action over Premiership’s plastic pitches ban

Back in May, Scottish Premiership clubs voted to outlaw plastic pitches in Scotland’s top flight - the ban will come into action at the beginning of the 2026/27 season. However, a number of lower league Scottish teams are not happy with this, given the financial implications.

According to the Daily Mail, Airdrie, Cove Rangers, Falkirk, Hamilton, Livingston, Queen of the South and Raith Rovers have ‘held talks’ with the Scottish FA recently. All these clubs use plastic pitches and would need to fork out a tidy sum to replace them should they be promoted to the Premiership.

As such, the FA could look to implement a scheme that would see teams using plastic pitches be given dividends to offset their losses upon their promotion. However, nothing has been put in place as of yet.