Raith Rovers' Shaun Byrne eyes clinching dramatic last gasp play-off berth

While fifth-placed Raith travel to a Queen’s Park side who haven’t won in 11 games and will have nothing to play for if rivals Hamilton Accies lose their appeal against a 15-point deduction and are relegated – a decision on Accies’ fate is expected between 5pm and 7pm today (Thursday) – fourth-placed Partick Thistle travel to second-placed Livingston, who can still go up as champions if they get a better result than leaders Falkirk who host Hamilton.

Raith ace Byrne, 31, who played 87 minutes of the club’s 1-1 home league draw against Greenock Morton last weekend having previously missed a chunk of the season due to an ankle injury, said: “In this championship, there's no easy games. Queen's Park already this season have beaten us 4-0, which proves that.

"But we need to win on Friday regardless of what happens between Livi and Thistle. We need to take care of ourselves first and then obviously the rest will take care of itself.

"The championship's crazy, so I think most teams have still got bits and bobs to play for.

"It's always better for us, I think that Livingston have got a chance to win the league, so they'll obviously be going for the win.

"Hopefully we can get the job done on Friday and then obviously Livingston do us a bit of favour as well.

“Being at Livingston (for whom he played 124 times between 2016 and 2019) was probably one of the highlights of my career. Leaving Dunfermline at a young age, I went on to have probably some of the best times of my football career there.

"I absolutely loved it, and still keep in touch with Davy Martindale (Livingston manager) at the moment as well. I have got a lot of respect for Livingston as a club.

"We've still got a chance to make the play-offs and obviously see what happens then. I'm really looking forward to the game on Friday and hopefully we can try and get the job done.”

Byrne also gave his thoughts on this week’s news that – following a meeting of the SPFL’s Competitions Working Group – it has been announced that clubs in the championship, league 1 and league 2 will be consulted on changing the format of these leagues, although the premiership will remain with the current 12-team set-up.

He added: “I think there should be change all over the leagues in Scotland, if I'm being honest. It's so repetitive playing the same teams four times a season, then you could get drawn against them in a cup, you could get drawn against them in another cup and then you're playing the same team six times.

"Then you could play them in the play-offs, you could play a team sort of six, seven, eight times a season, which is madness to be honest.

"No, it's too repetitive. I would like the leagues to be bigger.”