This is how the seasons kick off in the third and fourth tiers.

It's unpredictable at the best of times, but it really is difficult to call the lower leagues this season.

Alasdair Lamont
BBC Sport Scotland

Image source, SNS

Any preview of Scottish football’s second tier has to be heavily caveated.

This season, perhaps even more than any other in recent history, it is well-nigh impossible to predict who will go up as champions, who will be challenging for promotion and who will be struggling to avoid relegation.

As ever, every team is capable of beating the rest and will be quietly optimistic that this can be their year.

It promises to be another fascinating campaign.

Click here to read Al's second-tier preview.

Of course, of course, it isn't all about the top flight.

The Scottish Championship season got off to an absolute flyer last night as newcomers Falkirk downed Queen's Park in a belting game.

We need to talk about that Dom Thomas goal. Ooft, special.

It wasn't enough to get a result for Queen's, but it will take an absolute worldie to better that this season.

See it on the highlights by clicking play below.

Don Cowie makes four changes to the County team that cruised past Stirling Albion in the League Cup last weekend.

Will Nightingale recovers from a minor knock to start in place of the injured Ricki Lamie. James Brown comes in at right wing-back and new club captain Connor Randall is into the midfield.

Up top, former Motherwell man Jordan White replaces teenager Andrew MacLeod who drops to the bench.

Summer signings Akil Wright, Jack Grieves and Ronan Hale all make their league debuts, with a further five new additions on the bench.

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Stuart Kettlewell makes just one change to his Motherwell team that drew with Partick Thistle in the League Cup, and then lost on penalties, despite saying the performance left him feeling "pure anger".

Filip Stuparevic is dropped completely, with Moses Ebiye coming into the starting line-up to make his first league start for Motherwell.

Australia striker Apostolos Stamatelopoulos is named on the bench, alongside summer signings Steve Seddon, Kofi Balmer, Tom Sparrow and Marvin Kaleta.

There's also a Premiership debut for 19-year-old academy graduate Ewan Wilson, who starts on the left of a back-five.

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Motherwell: Oxborough; O'Donnell, Casey, Gordon, Blaney, Wilson, Zdravkovski, Halliday, Miller, Robinson, Ebiye.

Substitutes: Hegyi, Seddon, Balmer, Sparrow, Stamatelopoulos, McGinn, Callachan, Kaleta, Wells.

Ross County: Laidlaw; Brown, Leak, Wright, Nightingale, Harmon, Loturi, Randall, Grieves, Hale, White.

Substitutes: Hamilton, Chilvers, Denholm, Telfer, Efete, Samuel, Brophy, MacLeod, Reid.

Lee McCulloch
Former Rangers captain on BBC Sportsound

The game for the neutral was really good to watch, we've just didn't get the goals we wanted.

Rangers drop two points on matchday one.

A far from easy fixture, of course, but if Celtic win tomorrow they will already be playing catch up.

Hearts impressed in spells and will be satisfied with a point.

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Daniel Oyegoke surely takes the final yellow of the match.

Not sure it's even a foul.

Four of the five added minutes are away.

The ball is just pinging end to end then being given away.

Hearts in mouth in the Rangers defence but the ball just won't sit right for a home shirt and Alan Forrest fluffs his effort.

Five minutes added.

Rangers are putting a bit of pressure on but Vaclav Cerny takes a poor touch and it all breaks down.

"Wheeyyy" is the shout from the Tynecastle home crowd.

Lee McCulloch
Former Rangers captain on BBC Sportsound

I think with the chances both teams have had they'll have felt they deserved to come away with three points.

But the momentum a lot of the time has been with Hearts.

Kye Rowles, what a huge intervention.

Rabbi Matondo's header is either going in or setting up Cyriel Dessers for a tap-in, but the Hearts defender gets there.

Five minutes to play of regulation time.

Rangers are staring at two dropped points on matchday one.

And a triple change for Hearts.

Gerald Taylor gets a huge ovation as he makes way with Jorge Grant and Kenneth Vargas.

Yutaro Oda, plus debutant duo Daniel Oyegoke and Malachi Boateng come on.

Another Rangers switch.

Debutant Connor Barron can be pleased as he makes way for Kieran Dowell.