The Scottish Championship Preview

The moment you’ve all been waiting for.

A preview of this season’s Scottish Championship, more often than not the most entertaining and unpredictable of the leagues.

Derbies and rivalries galore this season, with a title race that, on the face of it, looks as open as we’ve seen it in years.

Weekends started off by a Friday night with Faddy and co.

What more could you want?

Here are some takes on the upcoming season, finishing up with some predictions that we can look back on and laugh at in a few months time.

A 6 way title fight?

We touched on this briefly in my Scottish football season preview, but it looks like a title race that is wide open this season, with at least 6 fanbases who will be quietly (or not so quietly depending on who it is) confident of their chances of starting next season in the Premiership. Here’s a look at each of those sides and their credentials.

We’ll start with the bookie’s pre-season favourites to take top spot, last season’s runners up and play off finalists Raith Rovers. They outperformed the expectations of most last season when running Dundee United pretty much all the way, and earned plenty of deserved plaudits along the way. 

Under the new regime, there seems to be a good thing going at Stark’s Park and they certainly seem like a club moving in an upwards trajectory.

On the face of it, they have recruited well so far, with the vastly experienced Hibs duo of Paul Hanlon and Lewis Stevenson making the trip over the Queensferry Crossing. Shaun Byrne is a very decent midfielder at this level and turning his loan into a permanent switch was a good move.

The play off final against Ross County showed a bit of a gulf in quality between the sides, especially in the Dingwall leg. However, the players and management will be better for the experience  and can use it to drive them on again this time around.

Last season, results against the likes of relegated Arbroath and especially Airdrie were eventually what led to the title challenge faltering towards the end of the campaign.

If they can tidy up results in those sorts of games, there’s no reason they can’t go one better this time around.

Partick Thistle have been the Championship’s nearly men of the past couple of seasons, a penalty shoot out away from a repeat of the 2023 play off final against Ross County.

Although, given the traumatic event the Jags and their supporters went through on that day, maybe avoiding a repeat wasn’t the worst result in the world. *insert thousand yard stare gif

They too seem to be recruiting well so far this summer, with Kyle Turner’s return a notable highlight. Daniel McKay and Logan Chalmers have been brought in to support Fitzpatrick and the veteran Brian Graham, golden boot winner last time around.

Luke McBeth was a stand out for Thistle last season, so if they can keep the likes of him and Turner fit, they’ll have an attack and midfield to rival anyone else in the league.

My main concern for Thistle remains the defensive / goalkeeper situation. The ‘keepers on show last season did not inspire confidence at all. Neither did a lot of their defensive efforts, resulting in their goals against column being in the lower reaches of the league. 

If they can keep Graham fit and tighten things up at the back, they’ve got a decent shot.

Airdrieonians surprised many, including myself, last year with their style of play and impressive showing over the full season after coming up through the play offs the season prior. 

Rhys McCabe has rightly earned many positive reviews from across the game and it is not a surprise that we are starting to see his name linked with bigger jobs in the country. Only a matter of time, for my money.

Their youthful team play with no fear and work the ball up the pitch very well, starting from the goalkeeper. A novelty to see a team outside the top tier play with such purpose and confidence, that is for sure.

An 8-0 success over East Kilbride in this season’s League Cup suggests that this is no flash in the pan either.

They may again be overlooked by some due to the size of the club, but if they keep Rhys McCabe around I would not be surprised at all to see them fighting it out at the top end of the table for a second season running.

Ayr United had a fairly indifferent showing in season 23/24, but with the opening of their fancy new stand and a few strong signings this could be the start of something promising.

The likes of Oakley, Dowds, Hastie and last season’s title winner Scott McMann are good additions on paper and there may be more to follow as there appears to have been a loosening of the purse strings this summer.

In Scott Brown, they have a manager who is very much still a rookie at this point, but has learned his trade under one of the best in the business in Brendan Rodgers.

Whatever your opinion of the former Celtic captain, his trophy haul speaks for itself and it can only be a benefit to the club to have someone of that standing within our game passing on his knowledge to the players every day.

Livingston will be an interesting one to watch this season. 

With Martindale around he could again build a side to punch above its weight as they did so successfully for multiple years in the league above.

Or alternatively, they could go full Hamilton.

Recent history does appear to be in their favour, with the last four champions of the second tier being clubs who were relegated the season before. However, those clubs were Hearts, Kilmarnock, Dundee and Dundee United who all undoubtedly have the wherewithal to throw a bit of cash at getting themselves straight back up. Livingston do not have this luxury.

The list of players heading out this summer is significant, with a number of them being first team starters.

How they get on remains to be seen, but you can be sure it won’t be boring as long as Davie Martindale is in charge

And last, but certainly not least, is last season’s League 1 invincible champions Falkirk.

The fact they were in League 1 for as long as they were is a bit of a travesty, but to win it in the fashion that they did is more than commendable.

In John McGlynn, they have one of our most experienced and likeable coaches and he and his staff have created a well oiled machine that I have no doubt will go on and perform at the next level up.

Indeed they have already taken the scalp of Dundee United this season (although Spartans did the same thing last season so don’t get too excited about that).

Falkirk have a noticeably lower turnover in players compared to most of the rest of the league, and that consistency will work to their benefit. Players know their roles on the park and there shouldn’t be any need to wait for the team to ‘gel’ unlike some of their potential title rivals.

They are also used to winning games of football, a simple principle that the importance of is sometimes overlooked, regardless of the level that those wins come at.

Battle at the basement

It could be as close at the bottom of the table as it is at the top. That would not be uncommon for this division and certainly adds to its undoubted appeal.

More often than not, automatic relegation and relegation play off spots are not known for certain until after all the full time whistles have gone at the conclusion of matchday 36.

Great entertainment to look in from the outside, not so fun to be involved in.

As defeatist as it may seem to some, I imagine that the likes of Hamilton, Queens Park, Dunfermline, Morton and possibly Livingston would take the security of mid table just now.

For a club of their size, Dunfermline have consistently underperformed in recent years. The fact they managed to have an average home gate of well over 5,000 in a pretty underwhelming season last time out is a credit to the supporters.

New signing David Wotherspoon is undoubtedly still a quality player, but his recent injury record leaves cause for concern.

Aside from him, the side looks weaker than it did last season due to the amount of players returning to parent clubs after season long loan deals. 

James McPake also remains somewhat unconvincing as a manager, and a slow start to the season could see his position come under pressure fairly swiftly.

Morton have been in the second tier for what feels like forever, usually finishing somewhere around mid table which is probably about par for them.

Last season, you may remember they went on a remarkable 16 game unbeaten run across all competitions. They are a team that play to their strengths well and can be very effective at both ends of the pitch. 

However, it says a lot for the rest of their season that they finished the campaign only 3 points above the relegation play off spot. 

Which was also fifth place, by the way.

Mental league.

Dougie Imrie is still a relatively new manager and will need to try and push Morton towards the play offs to advance his reputation further.

After winning on the final day last season, Queens Park secured a third year of second tier football. Not so bad when you think that they’d been in the third and primarily fourth tier for most of recent memory. Not so good when you remember that 12 months previously they’d been in a last day showdown with Dundee that could’ve seen them promoted to the top flight.

In Callum Davidson you feel they’ve got a fairly steady set of hands that should see them okay again this season.

However, the news of talisman Ruari Paton’s departure will be setting alarm bells going as he was a stand out last season, contributing 22 g/a in the league.

How well they do in replacing his contributions may well go a long way to deciding how they perform in the upcoming campaign.

And lastly, the current bookie’s favourites for relegation, Hamilton. Along with Livi and Falkirk, a slightly unknown quantity at this particular level.

They did well when dispatching a somewhat bedraggled Inverness side in the play offs at the end of last season, but would probably quite happily accept 8th spot just now.

New signings like Barry Maguire and Oli Shaw (once one of Europe’s best, remember?) should perform well at this level, and they have other members of the squad with Championship experience, like Kevin O’Hara, Reghan Tumilty and Ben Williamson.

John Rankin is one of Scottish football’s good guys and looks like he could still comfortably put in a shift in central midfield to this day, but I fear their return to the league above may be a short lived one.

Top flight managers of the future?

An interesting sideshow to the ever entertaining Scottish Championship will be to see how some of our nation's newer managers get on when pitted against one another.

Rhys McCabe undoubtedly got the best of Ian Murray in the individual battles last season, however Murray’s Raith team were within a couple of results of reaching the top flight.

Call it a draw.

Both will be looking to improve upon last season’s successes and, in my opinion, are in with a good shout of getting a promotion on their CV.

Scott Brown will look to involve himself in that conversation this time around. He has been well backed by the Ayr board and they will be looking for some tangible results to provide a return on said investment.

Because he was at Thistle for so long as a player, it is easy to forget that Kris Doolan is relatively new to the managerial game too. His first full season can probably be viewed favourably, but Jags fans will certainly be looking for a more sustained assault on the top spot this time around.

John Rankin probably has the toughest task of all in trying to keep the relegation favourites alive and kicking, but he is certainly another of the crop above who will be looking to make their mark on the managerial game. A good league showing from Accies would undoubtedly go some way towards achieving this.

I have no doubt that the hierarchy of some of the bigger clubs within the Premiership will be keeping a keen eye on the performance of some of the up and coming managers currently cutting their teeth in the league below. Whenever the inevitable first managerial casualty arrives, I would not be surprised to see some of the Championship’s managers mentioned above linked with the role in question, especially if their side has enjoyed a strong season up until that point.

Predictions

*Deep breath 

Here goes nothing.

Predictions for 2024/25 Championship season;

Title - Raith Rovers

Promotion play offs - Airdrieonians, Partick Thistle, Falkirk

Relegation play off - Dunfermline

Relegation - Hamilton Accies