Richard Gordon looks forward to the drama that awaits in the closing weeks of the season in his latest blog for the SPFL website.
With the climax to the league campaign now just a matter of weeks away, we look set for a thrilling conclusion right across the SPFL, largely thanks to those end-of-season play-offs which have added so much to our domestic game.
Twelve months ago, with Hearts long since doomed to automatic relegation, the Premiership bottom six would have been a virtual waste of time but, with the spectre of a potential drop looming, it was instead one of the most exciting ends to a season in years.
As we went into the post-split phase, the five sides above Hearts were separated by just four points, with Partick Thistle in 11th place. The next round of fixtures saw Ross County drop down, but the five were then just three points apart.
With three games to go it was Kilmarnock in the play-off place, with the rivals now separated by only two points. St Mirren, County, then Thistle all moved to safety as Hibernian kept slipping, before a Kris Boyd goal on the final afternoon spared Killie and sent the Easter Road side into that dramatic shoot-out, eventually won by Hamilton Accies on penalties.
It does not look like being quite as nerve-shredding this time round, with just three sides – St Mirren, Motherwell and Ross County – in danger of finishing bottom, and perhaps a fourth, Partick Thistle, still facing up to the potential fear of the play-offs.
Given Ross County’s impressive resurgence, and Motherwell’s mini-revival of late, right now the Paisley Saints look favourites for the automatic drop but, as Hibs found out last year, strange things can happen at this time of the year, so nothing can be taken for granted.
The play-offs have also been of huge benefit down the divisions, where of course they have been operating for the past decade, and there is much yet to be resolved in the final shake-up.
Rangers have taken something of a grip on second place in the Championship in the past fortnight, and Hibernian will have to recapture their form if they are to deny Stuart McCall’s men the most preferential position for the end-of-season showdowns, while Falkirk and Queen of the South might have to go down to the wire before the remaining spot is secured.
Elsewhere, Stirling Albion’s relegation from League 1 looks guaranteed and Montrose seem certain to finish bottom of League 2, while Albion Rovers are firm favourites to lift the title in that division.
That apart, pretty much everything is up for grabs, with the League 1 title race an intriguing three-way battle between Stranraer, Forfar and Morton, and the bottom tier play-off contest even more enthralling. Queen’s Park and Arbroath will fill two of the slots but, with just five points separating them, the remaining one could yet be landed by any of the other six sides from East Fife, currently fourth, down to second-bottom Berwick Rangers.
An exciting end to the campaign looks guaranteed throughout the SPFL - but predicting which teams will be celebrating and which will be left bitterly disappointed looks next to impossible right now.
You can follow Richard Gordon on Twitter @richardgordon48
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