If you want an omen, go back to April 2007. We were in a terrible run of form and went to the Falkirk Stadium. Mr McDonald was in charge and we finally picked up our first win of the year, partly thanks to a penalty (debatable) and a red card (definite). He was also in charge of two games against Hearts at Tynecastle - one of which we won 1-0 and he denied the hosts a penalty. The other finished 1-1. The only other game that season Mr McDonald took charge of was on the final day against Inverness Caley Thistle when no one really cared.
It's not the first time he has been in that position with us - he was also the man in the middle when St. Johnstone beat us at Love Street in April 2006 when we lifted the first division trophy. His other game involving us that season was early on when we lost 3-1 at Hamilton.
Going by Soccerbase, Mr McDonald didn't do any of our games in either 2003/04 or 2004/05. In 2002/03 he did three games - a penalty win at Ross County in the League Challenge Cup and defeats at Clyde and Inverness Caley Thistle. As we were rank rotten I don't think we can pin those on him.
The season before he did three games, two involving us and Falkirk - and the less said about them the better. One was a goalless draw at Brockville (quite good for us!) the other a 5-1 hammering at home in which Brian McGinty was sent off. He was also in charge the day Partick Thistle won the league at Love Street - disallowing a McGinty goal for offside.
Our first spell in the SPL seems to have been his busiest season involving Saints as he took charge of five games. Most aren't noteworthy - an away defeat to Aberdeen, a home defeat to Motherwell and a home win over Dunfermline. The other two games are. One saw us lose 3-1 to Rangers in January in which we were awarded our first penalty of the season. The other came towards the end of the season when we drew 2-2 with St. Johnstone, having been 2-0 up before Ricky Gillies was sent off. It was probably the correct decision. He only did one Saints game the season before that - our 8-0 hammering of Clydebank!
Mr McDonald has only done one Falkirk game to date this season - and that was on the opening day when they lost to Rangers. Strangely, he gave a team a penalty when they were playing an Old Firm side - only for Falkirk to miss it! Two of the three Falkirk games he did last season saw them being hammered by Celtic and he sent off a Bairns player each time, which should please the Rangers conspiracy theorists. The other game was a comfortable win over Motherwell.
Soccerbase says Mr McDonald has shown five red cards in just 13 games this season, an average of one every two or three games. Fortunately, he sent someone off last week so we should be OK on Saturday!