After a goalless draw at Caledonian Stadium on Monday, the playoff semi-final tie between Arbroath and Inverness Caledonian Thistle remains on a knife-edge.
Both teams enter Friday's contest dreaming of playing top-flight football next season, with the winner of the tie set to face the team that finishes in the relegation playoff spot of the Scottish Premiership.
Match preview
Arbroath advanced straight into the playoff semi-final after they finished the Scottish Championship season in second place.
Despite finishing the campaign six points above Inverness, Friday's hosts would have been the happier of the two sides following the first leg.
Dick Campbell's charges negotiated a tricky away game by holding their opponents to a goalless draw, ensuring that they enter the second leg with the contest still in the balance.
Arbroath will be confident that they can reach the final after winning four of their last five home matches, with the hosts keeping three clean sheets in those four victories.
In fact, they ended the season with the second-best home record in the Scottish Championship after losing just one home league game this term.
Inverness, meanwhile, had to negotiate a difficult quarter-final tie with Partick Thistle to book their place in the playoff semi-final.
A 3-1 aggregate victory included a 2-1 away win in the first leg, and Billy Dodds will be hoping that they can replicate that away victory on Friday.
A failure to clinch a first-leg lead would have disappointed the Inverness boss, but the result did extend their unbeaten run to five matches.
Despite ending the season as the second-highest scorers in the Scottish Championship, the failure to score in the first leg ended a 10-game scoring run.
Ahead of the second leg, the visitors can look to draw inspiration from their last two away performances, which have both resulted in an Inverness win.
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Team News
The hosts have no fresh injury concerns ahead of the second leg, although Dale Hilson is still expected to be absent due to a wrist injury.
After starting the last two matches, Jason Thomson will keep his place in the backline, with Campbell set to name an unchanged lineup.
With no alterations expected to be made to the side, Jack Hamilton will continue to lead the line for Arbroath, with the forward looking to add to the 10 goals that he has scored in all competitions this season.
As for the visitors, they will be without the services of Tom Walsh and Roddy MacGregor due to injury issues.
Like their hosts, Inverness could also opt for continuity, which could result in Dodds naming an unchanged side for the second leg encounter.
One of their main goal threats will be Austin Samuels, who will start up front for Inverness after scoring in both legs of the playoff quarter-final against Partick.
Arbroath possible starting lineup:
Gaston; Thomson, Little, O'Brien, Co. Hamilton; Ch. Hamilton; Stewart, Low, McKenna, Craigan; J. Hamilton
Inverness Caledonian Thistle possible starting lineup:
Ridgers; Carson, Devine, Broadfoot, Deas; Welsh, McAlear; Sutherland, Mckay, Chalmers; Samuels
We say: Arbroath 2-1 Inverness Caledonian Thistle
Like the first leg, we expect Friday's contest to be a closely-fought encounter, but with an impressive home record on their side, we think that Arbroath may just edge out Inverness to reach the playoff final.
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Arbroath win with a probability of 44.49%. A win for Inverness Caledonian Thistle had a probability of 28.48% and a draw had a probability of 27%.
The most likely scoreline for an Arbroath win was 1-0 with a probability of 12.19%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (8.8%) and 2-0 (8.41%). The likeliest Inverness Caledonian Thistle win was 0-1 (9.25%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (12.76%). The actual scoreline of 0-0 was predicted with an 8.8% likelihood.
