Jim McInally reckons there is a gap from division to division in Scottish football.
But the Tannadice legend believes it need not be a hurdle to old club Dundee United reclaiming their Premiership place at the expense of Hamilton Accies over the next five days.
He suspects current form could be enough to see former team-mate Ray McKinnon’s Tangerines successfully negotiate their way through the teams’ Premiership Play-Off Final.
And his own painful experience of the past week tells the Peterhead boss he’s probably right.
“People talk about a gulf between the Premiership and the Championship and I definitely do think there is a gap,” he said.
“That’s the case down through the leagues and, as ridiculous as it sounds because we’ve just lost 5-1 at home to Forfar to get relegated, I felt we’d been operating at a better level than them during the season.
“But if you look at the play-offs at the minute, the bigger teams so far as league position goes have all fallen by the wayside.
“Raith Rovers went, we went and, with a bit of luck, Hamilton Accies will go as well when they face United.
“I’ll tell you why I think that is… it’s because, if you’re the team from the higher league in the play-off, you’ve had a bad season.
“You’re not where you are because you’ve been unlucky, it’s because you haven’t been good enough. Your players’ confidence is low.
“And, generally, the team you are playing in the final is one that’s had a good season in the league below. They are on the up, there’s a bit of confidence about them and therefore I feel it levels the situation up.
“That’s definitely what happened to us. We had 18 shots and scored once — Forfar had seven and scored five.
“That’s down to confidence. They were feeling confident and, once we lost a goal, you could see it taking its toll on our players. We visibly wilted.
“If United can get ahead tonight it will remind the Hamilton players they’ve not been going well.”
Not that McInally believes it will be all plain sailing for United. Never slow to highlight faults in the Scottish game, he points to a couple of things that will be in Accies’ favour.
“The big down thing for me is it’s astroturf again in the away leg. I know United won the other night on Falkirk’s astro but Hamilton’s isn’t as good as that.
“Hamilton will have a better advantage on their pitch than Falkirk did, so it’s important United take a lead down there for the second leg.
“In general, I’m not a lover of astro at the highest level and it could play a part in who wins, which isn’t right.
“I think the final should be a one-off game, United playing Hamilton at McDiarmid Park for instance. That way you can neutralise the advantage of a team who have a plastic pitch.
“There’s a lot of things to be said about the play-offs being exciting and whatever but for United to be facing their sixth game come Sunday is not the fairest either.
“It’s typical SPL bias and we should be used to it by now, they always dress things up in favour of the teams in the top division.
“Don’t get me wrong — there is no comparison between Dundee United and Hamilton as clubs but Hamilton are in the top division so everything must favour them.
“And in a way United do only have themselves to blame because they were happy to have this set-up because they were in the Premiership when it was introduced.
“That doesn’t change the fact it should be fairer on teams in the lower division.”
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