WHAT better time than general election week for Scottish football's politicians to get their heads together and restructure the play-offs?

Any poll of fans, players and clubs would surely agree that the current format is far from ideal, while there has been plenty of resentment and acrimony over Rangers' plans first to allow their season-ticket holders in for free, then offer entry for all fans for £5.

I think everybody in football knows why the play-offs were set up this way. The top-flight clubs wanted to protect themselves, and limit the opportunity for a second team to go down. But I hope over time the SPFL will structure the play-offs properly. And there is no time like the present.

I have seen both sides of the play-offs. I was involved in them last year as a Championship club and I am desperate not to be involved in them this year as a Premiership side with Ross County.

While you could follow the English model, here is the way I think it should be: a pair of two legged semi-finals then a one-off finale at a neutral stadium like Hampden. So say Ross County finish second bottom this season, we would play the fourth-placed team in the division below (Queen of the South), while second faces third (Rangers v Hibs), also in a two-legged play-off, with the winners meeting in a final showdown at a neutral venue.

At Queens last season we would have needed to play six games if we were to go up. It was straining our squad, stretching us mentally and physically and it was just too much to ask. I am surprised Hamilton won it because they were on their last legs. All teams entering a play-off should face roughly the same amount of games.

So even if we stay up this year - and some might say we will be down there again next year even if we avoid the drop this time - I am calling right now for change. I am prepared to give up that supposed in-built advantage for the top-flight team and play an extra game to make it a fairer play-off structure. My chairman might think differently but I think Roy MacGregor would understand why I am saying it and wouldn't hold it against me.

We at Ross County are among the clubs which could suffer as a result of Rangers charging £5 for entry to their home play-off matches but I don't think it is to get at us. The way I see it, the Ibrox side simply feel hard done-by about having to re-start from the third division and this is payback time for everybody who they feel had a kick at them on the way down. They will get the bare minimum to cover stewarding on the day, but limit the amount which goes to the SPFL to be handed out to their rivals. They are also rewarding their fans, because they have been through enough.

In return for redrawing the structure of these games, why not let the SPFL set the ticket prices? The SFA parachute payments of £750,000 are likely to end after this year, and the league will have to find that money somewhere. I think fans would pay £20 a head if they knew there was a fair structure for the play-offs and a big finale waiting at Hampden.

IF Rangers are to make it through these play-offs, they will need everybody pulling in the right direction. That certainly wasn't the case with Lee McCulloch against Falkirk a fortnight ago. McCulloch found himself being booed that day, and last week against Hearts didn't end well either, but the fans have to remember how long and how good a servant he has been to the club. I don't think his performances have been up to his usual standard but he knows that. He is a good professional, it is just not happening for him at the moment.

Booing your own player is an absolute no-no for me. I had a lot of stick from opposition fans and it didn't bother me, but I never had it from my own fans and to be honest I don't know how I would have handled it if I had done.

If things aren't going well, it always tends to start with the chairman, then the manager gets it, then the captain. I remember having something similar at Aberdeen when the fans couldn't blame the manager because it was Willie Miller and they turned on Stewart McKimmie. He handled it well but that kind of thing isn't going to help Rangers.