Scottish Championship Play-Off Preview 2024/25
Craig Jones 
This time it's the turn of our Scottish Championship play-off preview, with Kai Watson once again joining us to discuss the four teams taking part.
Kai is our Scottish football expert here at Free Bets, with us all season, and with the playoffs coming up, his full focus is now on those games.
We already have our Scottish Premiership play-off preview live from Kai, as he looks at those trying to get into the top tier.
Scottish Championship Playoff Preview
The Scottish Championship Play-Offs don’t play out the same way as the Scottish Premiership Play-Offs. The major difference being that there isn’t a Quarter Final stage and the team that finished second bottom in the league above don’t get a bye to the final round.
Instead, the ninth placed club in the Championship, Airdrie in this case, play the club that finished in the bottom of the League One Promotion Play-Off bracket, Stenhousemuir in this case. The second and third placed sides in League One play against each in the other Semi-Final. This season that will be Cove Rangers vs Queen of the South.
Scottish Championship Playoff Schedule
Below you can see what the schedule will look like, it’s unfortunate that neither of the semi-finals are being televised but both legs of the final are free to view for anyone in Scotland.
Tuesday May 6
William Hill Championship play-off semi-finals, 1st leg
Stenhousemuir v Airdrie
Queen of the South v Cove Rangers
Saturday May 10
William Hill Championship play-off semi-finals, 2nd leg
Airdrie v Stenhousemuir
Cove Rangers v Queen of the South
Wednesday May 14
William Hill Championship play-off final, 1st leg
Lowest-ranked team at home in 1st leg
Live on BBC ALBA, kick-off 8.10pm
Saturday May 17
William Hill Championship play-off final, 2nd leg
Highest-ranked team at home in 2nd leg
Live on BBC ALBA, kick-off 5.30pm
The Contenders
Now we know what the schedule will be, let’s look at the teams that will be taking part;
Airdrie
Rhys McCabe’s side play an attractive, attacking brand of football which doesn’t always give them defensive solidity and that’s what they’ve struggled with this season. They’ve been the masters of their own downfall consistently throughout this Championship campaign.
That being said, you really have to respect the determination to play their style and try to work through their issues. McCabe’s style has remained consistent since he took over at the club, they take risks at the back, they press and play short, sharp passes. When it works, it looks incredible and right gains plenty of plaudits, however, as a fan, it must be frustrating at times being so unwilling to change for the sake of results.
In my opinion, Airdrie are the heavy favourites going into these Play-Offs and I wouldn’t be surprised to see them breeze through with relative ease. Ben Wilson is their danger man and top scorer up top although Ricco Diack has shown flashes of brilliance recently.
Their creation mostly comes through Adam Frizzell and Chris Mochrie with both also being threats in front of goal themselves. They’ll also be relying on the likes of Mason Hancock and Sam Graham to help keep the opposition out.
Cove Rangers
After Christmas Cove Rangers really came into their own and were pushing Arbroath at the top for a while before the Red Lichties eventually pulled away. Paul Hartley’s side have a mix of experience and exciting young talents, although most of their standout players in the latter category are on loan from Aberdeen.
Their key experienced players are James Doyle, Fraser Fyvie and Mitchell Megginson, the latter two also having come through at Aberdeen, just a slight connection here.. The standout youngsters have been Adam Emslie, Dylan Lobban and Findlay Marshall, as previously mentioned all three are on loan from Aberdeen.
They have four players that have 10+ G/A in League One alone this season;
Adam Emslie - 18
Mitchell Megginson - 16
Findlay Marshall - 12
Fraser Fyvie - 12
They not only scored the most goals in the league, four more than the champions, they also had the third best defence in the league. As their final position would suggest, I have them as the second favourites in the Play-Offs but would be doubtful if they have what it takes to overpower Airdrie.
Queen of the South
Queen of the South ended the season incredibly well and managed to climb above Stenhousemuir to finish in third place. They actually topped the form table, winning four and drawing one of their last five, earning five more points than their closest Play-Off contender in Cove.
The most interesting thing about their season is their home form vs their away form. The Doonhamers have the best home record in the league, only losing three of eighteen home games and earning 41 points, incredible, right?
However, Peter Murphy’s sides away form is a massive contrast to that and they sit eight in the away form table, winning only THREE away matches out of eighteen and they still finished third! 41 points earned at home and only 14 earned away from Palmerston Park is one of the wildest parallels I’ve ever seen in a football club.
This makes the home tie against Cove all the more important as they’ll be looking to take a comfortable lead into the second leg.
Adam Brooks and Jordan Allan ended the season on good form and Harry Cochrane will be looking to control the games in the midfield.
Their success in the Play-Offs all depends on how the first leg against Cove goes, in my opinion.
Stenhousemuir
Stenny were going toe-to-toe with Arbroath for a lot of the season then just fell away in the final quarter of the season. They only won one of their last nine and fell all the way down to fourth and could have completely missed out on the Play-Offs had they not finally won again on the final day.
Before that horrible run they had won five in a row and looked like genuine contenders for the title then it all just fell apart. Gary Naysmith’s side play some nice attacking football but defensively they looked miles off of it towards the end of the season.
They come into the Play-Offs as the most out of form side and are definitely the massive outsiders.
That being said, they have some excellent attacking talent in the likes of Blair Alston, Corey O’Donnell, Matty Yates and Ross Taylor. They have plenty of threats going forward but really need to buck their ideas up defensively if they want to have any chance.
I’d be very surprised to see them get past Airdrie but when it comes to this point in the season, you just really never know.
Who is your favourite to win the Scottish Championship Play-Offs?
Don't forget, you can get Scottish football tips from Kai Watson during the season with us, as he looks at all four league divisions in Scotland to find you his best weekly wagers.
