Ryan McGowan targets top-flight return at first attempt with Livingston

Defender Ryan McGowan is hoping his two-year plan comes to fruition when Livingston face Ross County in the Premiership play-off.

The 35-year-old joined the Lions from St Johnstone last summer after the West Lothian outfit had been relegated to the Championship.

McGowan was determined to help Livi back to the top flight at the first time of asking.

And ahead of the home first leg of the play-off against the Staggies on Thursday night, the former Hearts, Dundee United and Bradford player, capped 22 times for Australia, said: “It’d be great (to get back to Premiership). It was one of the main reasons why I came to Livingston.

“I thought that we had a squad capable of challenging for the league, which we did.

“And if not, I felt like we had a strong enough squad to make the play-off final and at least give ourselves a chance.

“So, personally, it would be great to get promoted and get back into the Premiership.

“I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my season so far in the Championship. But when I came here, it was a two-year contract and the second year I was definitely hoping that that would be in the Premiership.

“Obviously, you want to be playing at the highest possible level that it can be. It’s something that we all want to get back to.

“There’s a lot of players in the dressing room that haven’t played in the Premiership or maybe were sort of in and out when they were younger.

“So I think as a squad, we want to get back there and see how we get on next year, if we progress through.

“But it’s going to be two difficult games and fingers crossed, we can do it.”

McGowan is confident that Livingston, who won the Challenge Cup this season by beating Queen’s Park 5-0 in the final, would hold their own if they were to return to the top flight.

The Lions, who finished second behind Championship winners Falkirk, reached play-off the final with a two-legged victory over Partick Thistle, who had knocked out Ayr United.

County finished 11th in the top flight and will have to survive through the play-offs for the third successive season.

“I think we do have a solid squad,” McGowan said. “We’ve got players that will make the step up and be able to compete at Premiership level.

“I think we’ll probably need to bring a few more in just to again strengthen the squad or strengthen depth, I guess, because the games are a little bit more intense, they’re a little bit more high energy and you’re playing against real quality players.

“If you look at the top three or four clubs in Scotland and the resources that they have, it does make it a lot more challenging compared to in the Championship.

“But I feel like if we went up and got a couple of additions, then I’d like to think that we would be relatively successful and try and push for that top-six spot.”