For a club which has been an upwards trajectory since joining the SPFL the pain felt among the staff, players and management at Cove Rangers right now will surely have cut to the bone.
Having fought so hard to put their relegation fate in their own hands Cove endured a gruelling and demoralising experience in front of their own fans on Friday on the final day of the Championship season.
Balmoral Stadium had it all – fog, a goal after two minutes for visitors Morton, a spectacular equaliser from Declan Glass, a red card for the visitors and then a dramatic winner for the Ton.
In the end there were no winners though.
No play-offs for the visitors and thanks to Hamilton’s point gained at Arbroath relegation on goal difference for Paul Hartley’s men.
At worst Cove hoped they would have lived to fight another day in the play-offs but in the cold light of day they have not been good enough.
Hartley knows it, he said as much after the dramatic and devastating defeat.
League One return a rare setback for Cove
Hartley had hoped to have been able to make the necessary changes in the summer to ensure Cove would be stronger in the Championship.
Now his challenge has changed. He needs to build a new team capable of taking the club back there.
It will not be an easy task. There are only eight players under contract at the club for next season. Six of them played on Friday.
Hartley needs more youth, more pace, more creativity, more resilience – and that’s just to be competitive in League One.
Strengthening again for the Championship is on the backburner for now as all focus will now be on building a team capable of winning promotion back to the second tier.
Life won’t be any easier in the third tier
Cove need no reminding how tough next season is going to be.
Three of the four clubs in the play-offs – Hamilton, Falkirk, Airdrie and Alloa – will be in League One next season.
All of them will be targeting a tilt at the title.
The League One clubs will feel they are recruiting from a position of strength as they look to build on this campaign.
For Cove, given what Hartley has said, it’s a rebuilding job needed at his club.
The rise up the ranks from the Highland League to the Championship was a fairytale story for Cove Rangers.
But there’s no happy ever after in the SPFL. It’s a gruelling, unforgiving set-up where only the strongest survive.
Brechin also need to pick up the pieces after play-off loss
Nobody knows that better than Brechin City, who dropped like a stone from the second tier to the Highland League.
In 2017 they were a Championship team. By 2021 they were in the Highland League.
Saturday’s penalty shoot-out loss to Spartans means Andy Kirk’s side will still be there come August.
If the proposals become reality Brechin City could be looking at another two years before they can make it back to League Two.
Getting to the SPFL used to be the hard part but staying there is getting tougher every year too.
The simple fact is, since the play-off was introduced, no club which has dropped out of the SPFL has as yet made it back.
Albion Rovers will face Spartans in the play-offs this week.
They will do so after finishing the season on 39 points, the highest total for a side bottom of the fourth tier since it was introduced in 1994.
In case you haven’t noticed the days of legacy clubs having it easy are gone. It has become dog eat dog at every level.
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