Scottish Premiership Play-off: Will Ross County stop Partick Thistle making more history?
- Published
Partick Thistle thumped Ayr United to reach the two-leg final
Scottish Premiership Play-off final: Partick Thistle v Ross County |
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Venue: Firhill Stadium, Glasgow Date: Thursday, 1 June Kick-off: 20:00 BST |
Coverage: Listen on BBC Radio Scotland Extra, live text commentary on the BBC Sport website & app, highlights on BBC Scotland & BBC iPlayer |
Five years after Partick Thistle and Ross County were relegated together from the Scottish Premiership, they find themselves battling for top-flight status.
The clubs have had contrasting fortunes since, but brought together once more, the Highland side stand between their Glasgow rivals and entering the history books for the second time within a couple of weeks.
When they completed their rout of Championship runners-up Ayr United on Friday, Kris Doolan's Thistle became the first to reach a Premiership Play-off final after finishing fourth in the second tier.
Now they can go one further and become the first side to come through three two-leg play-offs and secure promotion.
Heading to Firhill for Thursday's first leg is also a first for County. The Dingwall club, who are looking to extend their latest three-year spell in the Premiership, have never before been involved in a play-off of any kind.
How did County end up in play-off?
Jordan White is a doubt after picking up a head knock in County's loss to Kilmarnock
Even though he had since been Scottish FA performance director, there were questions about Malky Mackay's appointment as manager in May 2021 given the controversy over offensive texts that emerged from his spell as Cardiff City boss.
The former Norwich City centre-half repaid the faith of the Dingwall club's chairman, Roy MacGregor, by leading them to a sixth-place finish in his first season in charge.
County have a habit of punching above their weight given they have only spent one term outside of the Premiership in the last 11 seasons.
However, their first top-six finish since 2016 has been followed by a season in which they were only once outside of the bottom three - ninth for one week at the end of January.
County found themselves four points adrift at the bottom after a 6-1 thrashing away to Heart of Midlothian in April.
In what had long been a three-team fight to avoid relegation, they clawed their way above Dundee United, with a 3-1 win at Tannadice putting them within touching distance of safety.
Despite that, they were consigned to the play-off after a 3-1 final-day defeat at Rugby Park that secured Kilmarnock's Premiership place - and that second successive away loss means County head for Firhill without a win in three outings.
Thistle reborn after scraping through
Doolan's new manager bounce relaunched Thistle's title challenge to such an extent that his side have lost just once in 17 games since he succeeded Ian McCall.
Thistle have ended the season as promisingly as they started it. Building on a 3-2 opening-day win away to pre-season favourites and eventual champions Dundee, they were top of the table by the start of October following an emphatic 5-1 defeat of Greenock Morton.
However, they crashed back down to seventh after five successive defeats by mid-November.
Even clawing their way back into the promotion play-off spots could not save McCall from the axe, which came somewhat surprisingly in the wake of giving Rangers an almighty fright at Ibrox before losing 3-2 in the Scottish Cup.
Consistency has certainly improved after 36-year-old former Thistle striker Doolan stepped up from his role as youth coach.
In one of the tightest-ever finishes to a Championship season, however, they still only clung on to fourth place ahead of Greenock Morton on goal difference after a 2-2 draw away to Raith Rovers on the final day of the regular season.
Since then, Thistle have been a team inspired. Having edged out long-time leaders Queen's Park 4-3 in their home quarter-final first leg, they hammered their faltering Glasgow rivals 4-0 in the return.
Runners-up Ayr were next up at Firhill, losing 3-0 before Thistle ran rampant with a 5-0 win at Somerset Park - to extend their unbeaten run to 10 games.
What does play-off history tell us?
Doolan has bad memories of the Premiership Play-off final having been in the Thistle side that lost home and away to Championship runners-up Livingston in 2018 to end their previous five-year stay.
Thistle have not been back in the top flight since and, having finished also fourth last season, lost both legs of last season's quarter-final to Inverness Caledonian Thistle.
County too dropped to the second tier in 2018, having finished in the automatic relegation spot below Thistle. They bounced back, though, the following season as champions - just as they did when making their first appearance in the top flight six years earlier.
In the eight previous Premiership finals, three second-tier sides have won out.
Fatigue from playing a quarter-final and semi-final has been cited as the reason why the three third-placed sides to make it, including Rangers, fell at the last hurdle.
Doolan reports that Thistle are "still full of energy" and points out that they also have already beaten a Premiership side this season - Kilmarnock away on penalties in the League Cup group stage at the start of the season, although they then lost 4-1 to Aberdeen in the next round.
County, meanwhile, lost on penalties in the Scottish Cup to a Hamilton Academical side who would go on to be relegated from the second tier.
Midfield battle key
Stuart Bannigan (left) could make a timely return to Thistle's midfield
Stuart Bannigan's possible return to a midfield holding role after injury would allow Scott Tiffoney, Kyle Turner and Steven Lawless to bomb forward more along with Thistle's attacking full-backs in support of Brian Graham - the veteran striker reborn while combining playing with being head coach of an improving women's team.
Middle of the park will be crucial, with County clicking better when former Swansea City man Yan Dhanda is on form. However, they face a big decision over top scorer Jordan White, who has what Mackay described as "a huge scar on his head" after "a really nasty cut" picked up on Sunday.
While Mackay has prioritised keeping the tie alive before his side's home tie, Doolan has vowed to continue his policy of attack home or away as Thistle eye a second promotion in three seasons after topping League 1 two seasons ago.
"Everybody goes on about the fourth-placed team having never done it, but I said a long time ago - records have to be broken at some point," the Thistle boss told BBC Scotland. "Why not us?"
Mackay, who bristles at the suggestion that Thistle are favourites despite County being "used to being underdogs", plans on having something to say about that.
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