For the third time in the last four seasons, the Championship title race will go down to the wire.
Falkirk, 11 points ahead just a month ago and apparently cruising towards a return to the top flight for the first time in 15 years, have nervously frittered away that advantage and face a tension-filled assignment at home to Hamilton on Friday night.
John McGlynn’s men are now level on points with a Livingston side ready to pounce on any further slip-up when they play host to a Partick Thistle outfit still in pursuit of the final promotion play-off place.
It’s just the latest example of why the second tier of Scottish football has come to be regarded by so many as the most compelling, unpredictable and dramatic division in the country.
Yet as its latest campaign reaches another climax with so much still on the line, there are suddenly murmurings in the corridors of power at the SPFL of a change to its format.
With no appetite among top-flight clubs for a shake-up of the Premiership, attention has turned to potential enlargement of the Championship and League One.
Partick Thistle’s 2-1 win over league leaders Falkirk was a typically fast and furious Championship encounter
The drama continued right until the end of the match as Falkirk’s Alfredo Agyeman was given his marching orders
It feels typically counter-intuitive of those in charge of promoting Scottish football that they would consider alterations to one of its most successful products.
Brian Graham is the proud owner of two Championship winners’ medals, earned with Hibs in 2017 and Ross County two years later.
The 37-year-old striker will be in the thick of the action again on Friday evening as interim co-manager of Thistle.
While not wholly opposed to the notion of a larger Championship, Graham offers a wry smile when asked about the latest machinations from the SPFL’s Competitions Working Group.
‘It’s funny how they’ve gone from talking about league reconstruction in the Premiership, that’s quickly been put to bed and now it’s about the rest of the divisions,’ he says.
‘So I don’t know if it was just a deflection at the top end of the game just to do something at the bottom end.
‘I understand that there is a feeling of don’t fix it if it’s not broken, but there are a lot of good teams in League One as well. So it could potentially be more exciting if it was bigger.
‘I genuinely don’t know how those chats have gone, I’ve only seen some of the headlines over the course of the week. I’ll just stay out of it until other people tell me otherwise.
‘But I’ve been involved in the Championship for a lot of my career and, for me, it is definitely the best league in Scotland.
Terry Ablade, far left, scored a stoppage time winner for Partick against Falkirk which ensured the title race goes to the wire on Friday evening
‘It’s so competitive, everyone can beat anyone else. There will be a lot of twists and turns over the 90 minutes in the games on Friday night.’
Former Rangers star Scott Arfield is determined to help Falkirk make their long-awaited return to the Premiership
Falkirk will be desperately hoping to avoid the cruellest twist of them all. With a superior goal difference of eight over title rivals Livi, they know any kind of victory over Accies at a sold-out Falkirk Stadium will get the job done.
Just one win from their last five games, their most recent setback coming when they conceded in the 97th minute to lose 2-1 at Partick Thistle last Friday night, has left them in danger of letting automatic promotion slip from their grasp.
For Scott Arfield, a very personal redemption arc is at stake. The former Burnley and Rangers midfielder has scored nine goals in 12 appearances since returning three months ago to the club where he began his career.
If Arfield has looked like a man on a mission, it’s with good reason. He still carries the pain of being part of the Falkirk side who were relegated from the then Premier League on the last day of the 2009-10 season.
‘I have never played down the fact I was one of the players who was a failure back then,’ says Arfield.
‘Falkirk should never have gone down that year and I was part of it. I always felt if there was an opportunity to bring the club back, it would mean so much.
‘That is as simple as I can put it. We now have one game to do it and would mean a helluva lot to everyone on this journey.
‘The management team have worked so hard over the last few years to get the club here. Come Saturday morning, we want Falkirk to be in a completely different place.
‘I’m not going to understate what it would mean to me and to people who have been with me on my journey from a 15-year-old kid here to now being back as a 36-year-old.
‘It would probably be the most content and fulfilled I’ve felt. When the manager gave me the call three months ago, this is what I wanted.’
Livingston’s desire for an immediate return to the top flight under David Martindale after last year’s relegation is no less intense.
Livingston showed there is little difference between teams at top of Championship and bottom of Premiership when they pushed St Johnstone all the way in the Scottish Cup
Nominated for the Championship player of the year were, from left, Livingston’s Robbie Muirhead, Falkirk’s Calvin Miller and Brad Spencer and Ayr’s Jay Henderson
Livingston were relegated from the Premiership last season and could yet make an immediate return if things go their way on Friday night
They are favourites to overcome Thistle who themselves need to match or better Raith Rovers’ result against Queen’s Park at Hampden to hold on to fourth place and a spot in the play-offs.
‘We understand the magnitude of the game now, because Livingston can still win the title,’ says Graham. ‘So they are going to be going all-out.
‘But we have given ourselves a great opportunity to make the play-offs. We’ve done well as a collective since Mark Wilson and myself have been in this role and now we have one more game to get us there.
‘Raith Rovers have been on a fantastic run of form of late. We expect Raith to win their game at Hampden.
‘We feel we will need to win. We can’t go into it thinking we only need a point. We will need to be on the front foot and get after Livingston.
‘Davie Martindale said a few weeks ago the league was done and Falkirk were going to win it – whether that was mind games on his part or not, I don’t know. But now they can win it and you never know if nerves will start hitting him and his players.’
