Scottish Championship: A league of two halves as title & survival races gather pace

Inverness Caledonian Thistle have beaten title rivals Kilmarnock home and away this season

Closely contested isn't even the half of it. The Scottish Championship boasts the best of both worlds - five teams fighting for the title and the other five scrapping for survival.

It's a ridiculously tight division, bar the yawning 12-point gap in the middle. Just three points separate the top five, with the same margin the difference between the bottom five.

Top spot changed hands on Friday when pacesetters Kilmarnock lost away to Inverness Caledonian Thistle, with Raith Rovers now splitting the pair.

Here's why it is all to play for at both ends of the table...

Inverness lead the way - just

The big hitters of recent years are gone and a clutch of contenders are clambering over each other in the chase for the title.

While Hearts strolled the Championship last season by 12 points and Dundee United won it by 14 the previous year - both in Covid-shortened campaigns - this time there is no runaway leader.

Caley Thistle were first to have a go, scorching out of the blocks with five straight wins and 19 points from the first 21.

A subsequent run of two victories in eight and they toppled from the summit, with Kilmarnock picking up the baton as their squad - reshaped since relegation - built momentum.

But, just as Tommy Wright's men looked primed to kick clear, they stumbled by losing their latest two home matches. And now after Friday's defeat they're down to third.

Raith, who alongside Partick Thistle are the form teams in the division, with 19 points from the last nine games, could have taken top spot but failed to take all three points from Arbroath on Saturday.

Thistle's run is even more impressive considering they have conceded only one goal. Throw in last Friday's Scottish Cup win over Dunfermline Athletic and Jamie Sneddon is the first Thistle goalkeeper to record seven clean sheets on the bounce, with Thistle stretching that now to eight.

Meanwhile, the division's only part-time club - Arbroath - continue to punch above their weight. Dick Campbell's bunch of upstarts sit fifth and have the league's most productive player in Michael McKenna, who tops the scoring charts with 11 goals and has also provided the most assists, four.

With the season three games shy of the halfway stage, one side will find themselves the odd one out in the almighty scramble for the title and the three promotion play-off spots.

Accies toiling & can Dunfermline bridge gap?

At the other end of table, Hamilton Academical are in danger of successive relegations after a plunge in fortunes, although Saturday's win over Dunfermline was a huge boost.

Head coach Brian Rice was jettisoned two games into the league campaign, with Hamilton's seven-year top-flight stay having ended last term. And new boss Stuart Taylor has struggled to spark an upturn, the win over the Fifers just their third in 13.

That has lifted them to sixth just a week on from a humiliating Scottish Cup third-round defeat by sixth-tier Auchinleck Talbot.

The congested nature of the bottom half means Dunfermline rose from bottom to sixth, but are now back to ninth with only goal difference keeping them above Queen of the South.

And yet, with 20 games still to play, could they bridge the 12-point chasm and break into the top five?

Survival is the main concern for Ayr United, in seventh, and Greenock Morton and Queen of the South. Those three finished eighth, ninth and sixth respectively last season, with Morton staying up via the play-offs.

None of the trio have won in seven league games - Queens' barren run stretches to eight - and a compelling second half of the campaign awaits. Will Morton get a new manager boost after dispensing with Gus MacPherson on Saturday?