The 11th season of the Premiership draws to a close over the weekend, and while the top six has been settled, the bottom half of the table will, as so often seems to be the case, be sorted out on the last afternoon.
This time round it is Ross County and St Johnstone teetering on the precipice with the Dingwall side holding a slight points advantage, but with Saints three goals better off, Don Cowie knows anything less than a win could see them in the play-off final for the second straight year.
County play hosts to the Dons while the Perth outfit are away to Motherwell, and to be honest, I have no idea how it is likely to unfold.
Neither of the contenders are in particularly brilliant form. Ross County just about shade it in that respect, but were thrashed 5-1 in their last game at the Global Energy Stadium, while St Johnstone were heading for a fifth straight defeat until Adama Sidibeh snatched their midweek lifeline at McDiarmid Park.
That ensured the battle goes to matchday 38 and it promises to be a nerve-wracking 90 minutes.
Difficult campaign for Livi
Livingston, of course, finished bottom and will return to the Championship after a dismal campaign, during which they set a number of unwanted Premiership records. They had the longest winless run of any side – 17 games – since the SPFL was set-up in 2013; they failed to score in seven successive fixtures, a total of 712 minutes; and the 28 goals they have netted is the joint-lowest along with the Hamilton team of 2018-19.
At the other end of the table, Celtic eased to yet another title, and have been at their irresistible best in recent weeks. Other than the second half aberration at Ibrox, they have been flying since losing to Hearts at the start of March, winning the other seven, and netting 24 goals in the process.
Brendan Rodgers’ side are deserved champions, cementing their position as the dominant force of the Premiership era, winning every season other than in 2020-21 when Rangers halted their ten-in-a-row bid.
Since 2013 they have played 409 league games and scored exactly 1,000 goals, an average of almost two and a half a game. Their points total stands at 991 with Aberdeen second on 676.
As ever, the season has thrown up plenty interesting statistics.
Lawrence Shankland will finish as top Premiership scorer, his 23 so far just one shy of last season’s tally, and with that, he becomes the first player to net 20+ goals in successive campaigns.
His overall top-flight total of 55 sees Shankland move into the top ten, two behind James Forrest, the only player to have scored in all 11 seasons of the Premiership. Three players, Callum McGregor, Chris Kane and Jonny Hayes, have netted in ten.
On the subject of scoring, one anomaly stands out; there has not been a single hat-trick in the top-flight all season long. Simon Murray got one in the Viaplay and Daizen Maeda in the Scottish Cup, but no-one has netted a treble in the Premiership since Jordan White did so against Dundee United just over a year ago.
The match in Dingwall tomorrow is of much more relevance to County than the Dons, but I hope the side can extend their recent revival and finish with a flourish.
The current run of eight unbeaten and four victories in a row has by some distance been their best run of 2023/24, and given what Peter Leven has achieved, I cannot help but wonder where Aberdeen might have been had Dave Cormack not dabbled in the Neil Warnock fiasco.
Under Peter, the guys have shown their true potential.
I was at both the Hibernian and Livingston games last week, and there was a freedom to the play, which was a joy to watch, with Fletcher Boyd the icing on the cake.
The team also achieved the most unlikely of statistics to emerge from the season, going 565 minutes without conceding a goal until Tete Yengi’s penalty on Wednesday night.
Signing-off with another energetic, but disciplined, display would be the ideal conclusion ahead of the summer arrival of Jimmy Thelin.
