In gaining promotion to this season's top flight, Livingston became the only multiple winner of the Scottish Premiership play-off to do so from the lower division.
The 2024/25 iteration of the Lions were the fourth side to haul themselves up from the second tier since the play-offs were reintroduced ahead of the 2013/14 campaign. Hamilton Accies were famously the first winner as they overturned a 2-0 first-leg deficit in the maiden final to relegate Hibs in front of a hilariously mutinous Easter Road. Four years later, [[Livingston]] got their first triumph, defeating Partick Thistle across two legs, before Dundee did likewise by swapping places with Kilmarnock after a dominant victory across 180 minutes in 2021.
The Championship team has now emerged victorious in a third of the 12 finals there have been in 13 seasons (a reminder that the 2020 final didn't take place due to Covid ending the campaign early). That's especially impressive when you consider that it's commonly accepted among Scottish football fans that the play-offs are heavily weighted in favour of the Premiership team.
In order to win promotion to the top flight, the team that finishes second in the Championship needs to overcome a two-legged semi-final before the two-legged final, whereas the Premiership side finishing in 11th just goes straight into the final. It's even tougher for those finishing in third or fourth as they have to play another two-legged encounter before advancing to the semi-finals.
Six matches required to make it to the promised land? That's just too much and surely a massive disadvantage on the team trying to get their rewards for a fine season, challenging at the right end of the table?
But is it so much of an advantage? When you examine things a bit closer, it's not quite as harsh on the Championship clubs as it's made out to be.
Let's take [[Livingston]] as an example. On April 18, five weeks before the play-off final, [[Livingston]] hosted Ayr United while Ross County, their eventual opponents, had a free weekend along with the rest of the Premiership clubs not involved in the Scottish Cup semi-finals. After that game, County had five games to play before the two sides met each other. [[Livingston]] only had four.
So how's that? Well, the Championship wraps up a few weeks before the end of the Premiership season. So when Livingston's league campaign ended on May 2, County still had three games to play (actually four, but we'll not count their meeting with Hearts as it took place less than 24 hours after Livi's last match).
You could dismiss this by arguing that the second-place side in the Championship have tougher fixtures to navigate, seeing as they need to win through a pair of cup ties, essentially, while also getting forced into a midweek-weekend-midweek-weekend rotation, which is tougher on the players as they don't get preferred recovery time on already aching legs. But, again, this isn't all that different from what the Premiership team faces.
In each of the last four seasons the penultimate round of fixtures has been held in the midweek before the final weekend. So when the Championship side finishing second are beginning their midweek-to-weekend rotation, so are the Premiership opponent.
Now, there is a disadvantage for the teams competing in the semi-finals because they have to play two further games. That's one more than the top-flight side within the larger timeframe, but another midweek-weekend slog in a more condensed period.
In fact, no team finishing in third or fourth has ever managed to win the play-off final, with Rangers, [[Dundee]] United, Inverness CT and Partick Thistle all losing their encounters.
Of those games mentioned, Rangers suffered the biggest thumping at the hands of their opposition. Nobody is going to claim it was unfair on Lee McCulloch, Kris Boyd, Haris Vuckic and co. Two of the other ties above even went as far as penalties. The last to do so, Partick Thistle, didn't chuck away their lead against Ross County due to tiredness. Sure, it may have played a small factor in them relinquishing their 3-0 aggregate lead late in the second half, but having spoken to Brian Graham about it, this writer knows the players don't excuse it with tired legs, but instead a lack of mental focus at a key juncture. Besides, they were the better team in extra-time!
It makes perfect sense for there to be a greater incentive to finish second rather than fourth for those seeking to win promotion.
They could have it mirror the play-offs in the lower leagues with 11th playing 4th and 2nd facing 3rd before the winners meet in the final, but with the leagues finishing at different times that is far from ideal. You could even have a debate as to which side would be disadvantaged the most: the Premiership team for having to play on for an extra three weeks while their opponents rest, or the lower-league outfits for being forced out of their rhythm and having to come into the play-off games cold.
It doesn't take much for your average football fan to follow the crowd, probably because that's what they spend a significant portion of their life doing. Football is a means of finding community and feeling a part of something.
We also don't tend to go for things that are beyond basic explanation. 'Team A plays Team B: whoever scores more, wins!' It's all very easy to follow and agreeable. We start to become dismissive when things are complicated and it feels like one of those other daft sports.
Having to play one or two two-legged ties before facing a team that didn't have to play any until the two-legged tie that will decide promotion and relegation? It's not the most complex scenario but it's got enough convolution to make the eyes naturally roll. Furthermore, it's something which was adopted and kept in place by the SPFL and chief executive Neil Doncaster, so it's instinctively viewed as a mess without further inspection required.
But the reality is that there are plenty of problems in Scottish football, but the set-up of the Premiership play-offs isn't one of them.
