The Stakes are high in second-tier scrap for survival as chaos in Championship depths provides welcome distraction from promotion processions – how will the cards fall?

The appropriate of colour of ribbons are all set to be pinned to the Scottish Premiership, Championship and League One trophies with several matchdays to spare, so you could be forgiven for asking what drama and suspense is left to wring out of the regular season.

But it’s not a question that would occur to anyone who spent last Saturday watching Dunfermline, Hamilton Academical, Airdrieonians or Queen’s Park.

At East End Park a crowd of 7,636 — the biggest in the country excluding Ibrox — expected the Neil Lennon and Victor Wanyama show, and instead were treated to the Reghan Tumilty show; the full-back’s scruffy first-half goal allowing struggling Accies to leapfrog the Pars in eighth place.

Meanwhile, in sun-kissed Airdrie, Chris Mochrie was smashing in a shock 90th-minute winner for the Diamonds against a Partick Thistle side that started the day 24 points ahead of them.

Lastly, over in West Lothian, Queen’s Park were swatted aside by Livingston, to conclude a horror week that saw the Spiders ripped apart in the SPFL Trust Trophy final by the same opponent and concede 13 times in three matches.

This season’s Championship was supposed to be all about the title race. With a rejuvenated Livi, a reborn Ayr United and a runaway train of a Falkirk team involved in a gripping three-way duel, there was little reason to even cast a glance towards the bottom.

Former Celtic midfielder Victor Wanyama was sent off on his debut for the Pars

Reghan Tumilty scored the winner for Hamilton against Dunfermline last weekend

Airdrie seemed doomed to the kind of record-breakingly bad campaign that will be referenced in future pub quizzes, and the only other question was who out of Dunfermline and Accies would be left in ninth place and facing the relegation play-offs.

But now, with Falkirk having left the other title contenders in their dust, the juiciest storylines are to be found at the opposite end of the standings, where only six points separate freefalling Queen’s Park in seventh from a resurgent Airdrie in 10th, with four matchdays to play.

‘I think it’s great, partly because it’s come completely out of the blue,’ says lower league expert Shaughan McGuigan, a panellist on BBC Scotland’s A View from the Terrace. 

‘Dunfermline and Hamilton have been poor for the bulk of the season, whereas it has been a season of two halves for Queen’s Park and Airdrie, but they have done it in opposite ways and Airdrie’s resuscitation could potentially end up being the greatest of great escapes. 

‘I said at one point they were as bad as the Arbroath team relegated last year — and with six points from the first 20 games that felt fair enough. But 12 games and 21 points later, I look like a mug!’

No-one is under any illusions that we’re watching Scottish football’s answer to the Four Kings era in boxing here. At times it feels more like watching four drunk men compete to see who can stumble home from the pub the fastest. 

To date, the four clubs embroiled in the Championship relegation battle have shipped over 200 goals between them and blundered their way through a total of seven managers. And yet, their ongoing scrap has the guiltily moreish qualities of late-night fast food.

Partly that’s because of what is at stake — reputationally, first and foremost. Former Celtic icons Lennon and Wanyama may have been parachuted into a difficult situation when they joined Dunfermline late last month, but that won’t provide any salve to their bruised egos and tattered CVs if they can’t prevent the Pars sliding into League One.

Existential fears are also at play, as Accies remain locked in a civil war of sorts with their own fans, facing uncertainty about their future use of New Douglas Park, while rumours swirl that a points penalty could be imposed due to the SPFL downgrading their club licence. 

Queen’s Park are contemplating a more austere future where they may not have their Elite Academy to fall back on, with main sponsor and benefactor Lord Willie Haughey withdrawing financial backing as of June next year.

And, whatever the finer details are of the ‘ambitious and long-term plan’ that James Bord and Evan Sofer spoke of in the wake of their takeover of Dunfermline in January, it’s doubtful that the two Las Vegas-based AI experts were envisioning another stint in the third tier.

It’s ironic, then, that the club who remain bottom of the pile as things stand appear to be the ones with the least to lose.

Airdrie fans have been mentally prepared for the drop since around December, and financially their club appears to have cut its cloth slightly more carefully than the others.

As for player-manager Rhys McCabe (still just 32), who was linked with Premiership vacancies as recently as late autumn, even if he can’t quite complete the Diamonds’ great escape, he has mended much of the damage done to his reputation in the first half of the season just by ensuring his side still have a puncher’s chance at this point — bearing in mind they were 15 points adrift of safety in January.

‘We know that with what we’ve got, we can win every game of football,’ McCabe insisted last weekend. ‘And the only people that are going to beat us up in this league, as I’ve always said, are ourselves.’

‘Airdrie’s problem is that so many of the players they signed last summer just weren’t up to scratch,’ notes McGuigan. 

Queen’s Park keeper Calum Ferrie has conceded 14 goals in his last four Championship outings

‘But their January window was much better, and their injury list has cleared too, allowing players like defender Mason Hancock to get back to the form we know he’s capable of. 

‘I think McCabe might already have regained some credit, so he has less on the line than someone like Neil Lennon.’

Elsewhere in Lanarkshire, Hamilton supporters are understandably weary as they brace for a potential third relegation in five seasons. Brandon Coghill is a lifelong fan and formerly part of the popular Only Accies podcast. 

‘The stadium situation is annoying because it’s just rumour after rumour and you don’t know what to believe,’ Coghill reflects. ‘And in terms of the possible points deduction, I do think it’s just speculation, but with Accies, who knows.

‘Frustratingly, our recruitment hasn’t been bad at all, but the football has been negative and repetitive and from a managerial point of view it just hasn’t worked under John Rankin for many reasons.

‘We definitely have the hardest remaining games but I’m confident we can get a minimum of four points from the last four. Accies love to surprise us and pick us up when we’re feeling low, so it’s a bingo really!’

Perhaps the strangest atmosphere is to be found over on Cathcart Road, where a sense of fatalism reigns and some Queen’s Park fans actually seem to welcome Haughey’s exit and a return to the old ways of pottering around the third and fourth tiers, if it allows Scotland’s oldest club to reclaim their identity. Enzo Tamagnini, from fan podcast The Spiders Talk, is not one of them, however.

‘It’s true that some people are pleased about the Haughey news,’ he explains. ‘Personally, I still believe that things were going to come good eventually, but I also understand why some feel the club has lost its soul and this is now the time to take control back, regardless of what that means in footballing terms.’

Manager John Rankin is hoping to ensure Hamilton don’t suffer a third relegation in five years

Last month’s decision to part ways with Callum Davidson — who had the team on the cusp of the top four at Christmas — now looks like a hasty one, with interim head coach Steven MacLean having failed to pick up a single point since. 

Some of the fanbase are sceptical about the chances of his demoralised and injury-hit squad collecting any more from the final 12 available.

‘I was definitely more open to Davidson leaving than most, our record had been poor for a long time, but I also expected the club to have a replacement lined up and that hasn’t materialised,’ adds Tamagnini.

‘We could still stay up without getting another point depending how Airdrie get on, but I’ve accepted that even if we manage to avoid it this year we’ll likely go down soon. 

‘And it could be a disaster, but honestly, the last two and a half seasons have been so exhausting that it could have a galvanising effect if we end up being competitive at that level. The whole situation is just really sad.’

When you consider that the crowd Dunfermline drew for that six-pointer last Saturday comfortably exceeds the average home attendances of Airdrie, Queen’s Park and Accies combined, it becomes clear which of the four clubs has most to lose. 

Lennon proved he can get a tune out of his new charges by leading them to a 1-0 win over Livingston in his second game, but has his work cut out with a group that is arguably too young and lightweight for a blood and guts relegation battle.

Veteran forward Chris Kane’s return from injury cannot come quickly enough, for his battling qualities as much as the fact that he’s netted 10 of the Pars’ 27 league goals. 

‘Previous boss Michael Tidser was keen to add three or four experienced players in January/February, but he got players inexperienced in Scottish football and at first-team level instead,’ says journalist Iain Collin, who covers the Fife outfit for The Courier. ‘The hope was the youngsters would add energy and freshness, but it hasn’t worked.

‘Relegation would clearly be a massive blow for Dunfermline, they’ve lost around £1million in the past two sets of accounts. League One football would certainly test how deep Bord and Sofer’s pockets are, although there is confidence that they’re in it for the long haul.

‘With regards to Lennon, it’s uncertain whether he would even stay on in the Championship so, if they drop to League One, I would say there’s no chance.’

Of course, the picture could look dramatically different after this afternoon, when Accies and Airdrie visit Firhill and Stark’s Park respectively, while Queen’s Park and Dunfermline clash at Hampden.

So, how does McGuigan think it will all shake out in the end? And what threats lie in wait in the Championship play-offs, which no ninth-place finishers have successfully emerged from in any of the last three campaigns?

‘A lot will come down to this weekend, but I think Queen’s Park might lose all four remaining fixtures, Airdrie might pick up three wins, Hamilton might be able to scrape together four points and Dunfermline the same. That would see Queen’s finish bottom and Dunfermline ninth.

‘In theory, the team finishing ninth should be good enough to beat Cove Rangers, Stenhousemuir, Queen of the South or Alloa, but we’ve seen it often enough now to know it’s not quite as simple as that. 

‘If the League One side can get the first goal or the ninth-placed team gets a man sent off, things can change very quickly.’

So don’t hang about, there’s only four more weeks to get onboard with your newest guilty pleasure…