CONGRATULATIONS to manager Ross Jack and the players for securing the final Irn-Bru Third Division play-off place....

….let's hope they can make it a real glittering end to the campaign and the start of a new chapter in the club's history.

It's been a long, hard road to get to this stage – 12 seasons in the bottom tier of Scottish League football – with the toughest test still to come.

Finishing in fourth spot in the Third Division, on the face of it, lands that team with the hardest route to promotion by being paired against the second bottom side in the Second Division.

Whether it's Forfar Athletic or Albion Rovers is neither here nor there – both will be formidable opponents.

City will host the first leg of the semi play-off at Borough Briggs on Wednesday, May 9, with the second leg at Station Park or Cliftonhill on Saturday, May 12.

The winner of that tie will face Queen's Park or Stranraer in a two-leg final on Wednesday, May 16, and Sunday, May 20, with the drawing of lots deciding who's at home first.

It goes without saying City will start outsiders of the four play-off hopefuls, but history shows that more often than not it's two teams from the Third Division who have made it to the upper tier. That's been the case in 10 of the 11 seasons to date since the play-offs were introduced.

Six times, the club finishing second in the Third Division table won their two play-off games to join the champions in the Second Division and on two other occasions it was the third-placed side who went up with the champs.

That leaves the two other times a Third Division outfit clinched promotion through the play-offs....Arbroath (2007-08) and Stenhousemuir (2008-09) after both sides finished their respective campaigns fourth in the table.

So, it's not pie-in-the-sky stuff for City to harbour hopes of pulling off what would be a dream promotion slot alongside Alloa Athletic.