Ayr United v Queen's Park: Thrilling Scottish Championship race enters home straight

Ayr United striker Dipo Akinyemi has scored five goals against Queen's Park this season

Season after season, the Scottish Championship provides us with a plethora of twists, an abundance of turns and drama aplenty.

As yet another compelling campaign draws to a close, the tension is rising at both ends of table.

Is the title now a two-horse race? Who will clinch a playoff spot? Which one of the strugglers will beat the drop?

The BBC Scotland cameras are at Somerset Park on Friday for Ayr United v Queen's Park, a match that may go some way to pulling back the curtain on this puzzle of a league.

Head-to-head title fight or will there be a shock?

Going into matchday 30, Queen's Park were seven points clear of Dundee, but a run of three successive defeats without scoring followed by a narrow 1-0 win over second-bottom Hamilton Academcial now puts Owen Coyle's side a point adrift of the leaders.

The Spiders have secured back-to-back promotions to get to this point, making them no strangers to getting it done at the business end of the season.

Dundee, however, are in great form. They are unbeaten in seven after scoring in the 94th minute to level against Greenock Morton on Saturday, having trailed 3-1.

Inverness Caledonian Thistle have won six in a row to mount a late challenge and are now just three points behind Queen's Park.

Ayr were top of the pile in December but have slipped back to fifth place. A win would lift them level with the Highlanders, although games are running out for those two.

Permutations, permutations, permutations

While top spot and automatic promotion may be out of reach for some of the chasing pack, second place is not to be sniffed at.

In one of Scottish football's most enduring curses, no team finishing third or fourth has gone up to the top-flight since the current play-off system was introduced in 2013-14.

Ayr need to start winning after collecting two points from their past three outings. Queen's Park really can't afford any more slips as they eye a return to the summit.

The Ayrshire side enjoyed a 5-0 success when Coyle's team were last at Somerset Park in October, Dipo Akinyemi bagging a hat-trick. The striker also scored two in a 3-2 win over the same opponents on the second week of the league campaign.

Queen's did prevail in the most recent meeting though, 2-0 at Ochilview in early February.

Partick Thistle have lost just once in 10 since Kris Doolan took over from Ian McCall. Only Dundee have a better goal difference and their run-in pits them against three of the bottom four, which could be a blessing or a curse at this time of year.

Morton aren't out of it just yet but would need to put together a near-flawless run coupled with a collapse from some of the others.

Win or bust weekend for Cove Rangers?

The wrong end of the table is maybe a bit more clear-cut. Only maybe, though. Until Saturday at least.

Arbroath, in eighth, host bottom side Cove Rangers and a victory for either would be massive.

It looks like Cove have reached last orders in the last chance saloon.

Three points could take them above Hamilton - who host Partick Thistle and have played a game more than the other two - but the Aberdeen side are on a run of 10 without a win and they travel to Dundee next, which really ramps up the pressure for them at Gayfield.

Arbroath, who were in the race for top spot this time last year, host Accies in the final game of the season and that could well be a decider to avoid the relegation play-off spot.

Nail-biting doesn't even come close...