Latest News

alt description

Wednesday 2nd August 2023

cinch SPFL Season Preview - 2 Days to Go

Resident statto @splstats brings us the numbers as we count down towards the start of the 23/24 season

  • This will be the 128th season of league football in Scotland, since the introduction of the 1st Scottish League back in 1890/91. Dumbarton and Rangers were joint champions in that first season - they finished level on points and then drew 2-2 in a play-off and shared the title. Three other current SPFL sides also participated in that first season of the Scottish League - Celtic, Heart of Midlothian and St Mirren, alongside Cambuslang, Third Lanark, Abercorn, Vale of Leven and Cowlairs.
  • Spartans boss Dougie Samuel has immediately jumped to the top of the list as the longest-serving manager in the SPFL. Samuel has been in charge of the club for 11 years, having originally taken over in June 2012. The next two longest serving bosses are both in charge of Angus clubs - Dick Campbell took over at Arbroath in March 2016, while Stewart Petrie joined Montrose in December 2016. Peter Murphy of Annan Athletic is the only other current manager who has managed the same club in the SPFL for more than 5 years.
  • The oldest stadium still being used in the SPFL is Cappielow in Greenock, which originally opened in 1879. The iconic stadium has therefore been home to Greenock Morton for 144 of their 149 years of existence. Morton are one of 2 clubs who have had the stadium as their home in the Scottish League - Clydebank also groundshared at the ground between 1999 and 2002.
  • Clyde and Peterhead will both participate in cinch League 2 this season after being the 2 clubs relegated from last season's cinch League 1. Both clubs were also promoted together back in 2018/19, Peterhead as champions and Clyde via the play-offs. Both will be aiming to be the first side promoted straight back to cinch League 1 following a relegation since Stenhousemuir did so back in 2017/18.
  • Celtic goalkeeper Joe Hart kept the most clean sheets in the cinch Premiership for the 2nd consecutive season. The Hoops keeper managed 16 shut-outs last season, 3 more than Aberdeen's Kelle Roos. In the cinch Championship, Charlie Albinson of Ayr, Calum Ferrie of Queen's Park and Brian Schwake of Morton led the clean sheet charts with 11 each. Deniz Mehmet of Dunfermline had the most clean sheets in the whole SPFL - he kept the ball out in 21 cinch League 1 matches. League 2's leading clean sheet maker was Brett Long of Dumbarton with 16.
Back to news