By Graham Barnstaple
May 21 2012

The Division One and Two play offs provided some great drama, particularly for fans of Dumbarton and Albion Rovers, is it time for the SPL to latch on to the idea.

Sunday saw the SFL season come to an end with the play offs to decide who would grab the last places in Division One and Two. After the first legs the favourites were Dumbarton (2-1 up from first leg v Airdrie) and Stranraer (2-0 up against Albion Rovers).

Dumbarton sealed their return to the second tier of Scottish football for the first time in 16 years in emphatic style with a 4-1 win at Airdrie, with veteran Craig Dargo pitching in with two goals.

At Coatbridge the home side were 3-1 up at half time, and this in the end forced the game all the way to penalties which they eventually won by 5-3 to stay up after being promoted for the first time.

The heartening thing about these games was the interest they attracted, Dumbarton was almost full for the first leg and there was almost 3000 at the return a Airdrie, three or four times the normal. The Rovers had a crowd of just over 1000 for their triumph, again about three times the norm.

I know this is not on a par with the crowds we see at Wembley for the English equivalents but they do show there is an appetite for play offs inScotlandas well. Hopefully this will give the SPL the push they need to bring them in themselves.

It would bring more people to games during the last few weeks of the season as it will reduce the number of dead games in the closing weeks. It will also ensure people are dragged along to games for the sudden death nature of play off games.

I am not sure the SPL clubs will have the nerve to introduce play offs as it would be another example of turkeys voting for Christmas.