If you ride your luck for long enough, pretty soon it will run out. That is the fear for Ross County as their battle to stay in the Premiership once again goes to the wire.

As they prepare for the second leg of their play-off final against Livingston tomorrow night, they could be forgiven for thinking that these nerve-shredding, winner-takes-all finales have become a staple of their season.

It is the third consecutive year they have finished second-bottom of the table and subjected themselves to a future-defining two-legged showdown when everyone else has knocked off for the summer.

Few will forget County’s miraculous escape in 2023 when they recovered from 2-0 down in the first leg, as well as 1-0 down in the second, to score three late goals, negotiate extra time and beat Partick Thistle on penalties. 

It was much more comfortable a year ago, when they eclipsed Raith Rovers 6-1 on aggregate, but County can ill afford to keep leaving themselves in this position. With every passing season, the law of averages grows more worrying.

Don Cowie is hoping his County team can make it three playoff final wins in as many years

Striker Ronan Hale is County’s best bet for a goal in the second leg against Livingston

Livingston boss David Martindale has already led his team to victory in Dingwall this season

They need only look at St Johnstone, who have been chancing their arm since they won a cup double in 2021. A year later, they finished 11th and survived via a play-off win against Inverness. In 2023, they finished 10th on goal difference.

This season, it all caught up with the Perth club, who suffered automatic relegation after finishing rock bottom. Some clubs are just not big enough to invite danger every year and repeatedly lever themselves out of trouble.

The good news for Don Cowie and his under-pressure players is that they are level after the first leg. A late penalty by Ronan Hale in West Lothian on Thursday salvaged a 1-1 draw they scarcely deserved.

The bad news is that they created very little, a recurring theme on a run of 10 winless games, the first seven being defeats. Two of their seven goals in that sequence came courtesy of stoppage-time spot-kicks, one of them hugely controversial.

While there has been no single reason for their untimely collapse, the absence of midfielder Noah Chilvers certainly hasn’t helped. Until his season-ending injury, he was giving County the kind of creative spark provided by Blair Spittal and Yan Dhanda in previous years.

How they could do with Chilvers in tomorrow’s game, a cup final in all but name. The winner will have to find the net, which places an onus on Hale. He has scored all but two of County’s last seven, while Stevie May might just be the talisman for Livingston. He likes a play-off goal.

May is one of many seasoned campaigners in David Martindale’s streetwise side, who were in the Premiership only a year ago and will be a tougher nut to crack than County’s previous play-off opponents. 

They have lost just two of their last 11 games. And they don’t concede many, thanks in part to the experience of Ryan McGowan and Danny Wilson in central defence.

What’s more, their form on the road is much better than it used to be. They have lost only one away game since early January. That run includes a 3-2 Scottish Cup triumph against County in Dingwall, where Andrew Shinnie scored the extra-time winner.

Nor should Livingston run out of steam late in the game, as Inverness did against St Johnstone and Partick did against County. Having finished second in the Championship, they entered the play-offs at the semi-final stage and have played only four matches this month (one fewer than tonight’s opponents).

Despite the late goal last Thursday, followed by an embarrassing episode in which one of their fans allegedly spat on County assistant Carl Tremarco, Livingston are in a decent place. Martindale is in chipper mood and, with a new American owner just in the door, it feels like the dawn of a new era.

All of which would be enough to induce a cold sweat in Cowie were it not for the fact that he and his club have been here before. They know what’s required. You might go as far as to say that the more they are in this position, the better equipped they are to handle it.

But it’s a dangerous hypothesis, one they would be well advised not to keep testing. Apart from anything else, it doesn’t account for the uncontrollables in a one-off game, like mistakes, misfortune and refereeing injustice.

On their own ground, with play-off experience and a long season of Premiership competition under their belt, County are probably favourites, but they have left themselves no room for error. Again.