Hamilton Accies managed to sneak into the play-offs after a battling stalemate at Arbroath.John Rankin's men started the day bottom of the table but they benefited from Cove’s 2-1 loss against Morton to avoid automatic relegation on goal difference from Cove and now live to fight another day.They will go into a shoot-out with the League One promotion contenders to try to preserve their league status, travelling to either Alloa or Airdrie on Tuesday night in the semi-final first leg.
Arbroath and Hamilton were two of nine teams in the Championship that had it all riding on 90 minutes of football.Events 47 miles north of Gayfield where Cove Rangers hosted Morton, were always going to have a significant bearing on the outcome in Arbroath.Defeat for Cove meant that only a seven-goal hammering for Arbroath at the hands of Hamilton would dislodge the Angus side from eighth place and automatic survival.A Cove loss would also hand Accies a lifeline and mean a draw would be enough for them to go into the relegation play-offs.
Those permutations meant this was always going to be a nervy night for both teams.Arbroath were once again backed by and impressive 2,000 plus home crowd, with 300 making the trip north to back the Lanarkshire side.Accies have had more than their share of last day dramas over the years.And while a resounding 7-0 win seemed incredibly unlikely at kick-off, they did have previous form.In 2014 they beat Morton 10-2 on the final day of the season, only just missing out on the Championship title to Dundee.They then overturned a 2-0 first leg deficit to beat Hibernian and clinch a spot in the Scottish Premiership.But these are different times and they have brought different pressures for the SPFL Trust Trophy