Play-off finals should be winner takes all

As we enter the final days of the Premiership season we're getting a clearer picture of who will be in the play-off for the top flight, with St Mirren now scheduled to play either Partick Thistle or Dunfermline, who meet tonight with the score from the first-leg tied at one apiece. The same scoreline carries forward from the first leg in the First Division play-off, with Hamilton playing Clyde.

The Premiership play-off is intriguing. Normally, the Premiership side is the favourite, although last season Livingston got the better of Ross County. It's very hard to separate Thistle and Dunfermline, but if pushed I think home advantage for the Jags might make the difference. The fact that Dunfermline will have more than one eye on the Scottish Cup final is also in Thistle's favour. And given the Buddies poor form of late (that League Cup win seems a very long time ago now), I'm not convinced that they will best the team from the Championship. But of course, by the time you read this I may have been proved completely wrong!

The pyramid system that now operates does give clubs down the leagues a chance of promotion, but it is clear that the system favours the team from the higher Division, mainly because their challengers have had to play more games than them before getting to the denoument. I understand why all the 'premlinary' matches are two-legged affairs, but don't understand why the final is also played over two legs. A final is a final, no matter what the competition is, and, in my view, it should be a one-off game, played at neutral ground, as they do in England. It shouldn't be Hampden, but there are grounds across the country that would make ideal venues for such a final, and, depending on who contests it, they can be somewhere that fans don't have to travel too far to reach. Given the cost of living, not to mention briefs for matches, it would also mean that, at the end of a long, expensive season, supporters are not been asked to stump up too much money.

I suspect that if you ask the teams involved they would agree it would be fair. Of course, playing two legs means more ticket money, but the drama of a one-off final is hard to beat. Winner takes all. What could be more exciting!?

Michael McEwan, Ops Team, the SFU.