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Sunday 30th July 2023

cinch SPFL Season Preview - 5 days to go...

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

  • Spartans are competing in the SPFL for the first time after winning promotion via the play-offs thanks to wins over Brechin City and Albion Rovers. The Edinburgh club are the 5th side to gain promotion to the SPFL via the play-offs, joining Edinburgh City, Cove Rangers, Kelty Hearts and Bonnyrigg Rose. Spartans' Ainslie Park ground has previously hosted SPFL football - Edinburgh City played there from 2017-2022.
  • Ross County secured their cinch Premiership safety by beating Partick Thistle 5-4 on penalties following a thrilling late comeback at the Global Energy Stadium. The Staggies have history on their side in the coming season - all 5 previous Premiership sides who have won the play-off have finished outside of the bottom two in the following season. Motherwell finished 5th in 2015/16, Kilmarnock were 8th in 2016/17, Hamilton Accies came 10th in 2017/18, St Mirren were 9th in 2019/20, and St Johnstone finished 9th last season.
  • There will once more be 5 European places up for grabs for Scottish clubs across the coming season. The top two clubs in the cinch Premiership will qualify for the Champions League, with the champions going straight into the group stage and the runners-up going into the 3rd Qualifying Round. The Scottish Cup winners will enter the Europa League Playoff Round, with 3rd in the cinch Premiership entering the Europa League 2nd Qualifying Round and 4th in the cinch Premiership entering the Conference League 2nd Qualifying Round. If one of the top two sides also wins the Scottish Cup, then the Europa League Playoff Round spot would go to the 3rd placed Premiership side, with the other spots dropping down to the 4th and 5th placed sides instead.
  • Dundee United will return to the cinch Championship following their relegation last season and will be hoping to bounce straight back. The good news for the Terrors is that 4 of the last 5 cinch Championship titles have been won by relegated sides - the only exception was the 2019/20 title, which was won by United themselves.
  • Montrose striker Rory McAllister has scored more Scottish league goals than any other player currently playing in the SPFL. McAllister has scored 240 league goals for 5 different clubs since making his debut back in 2005. McAllister scored 158 of those goals for Peterhead, 45 times for Brechin City, 24 times for Cove Rangers and 3 times for Inverness Caledonian Thistle, and currently sits on 10 league goals for Montrose. McAllister is currently 13th in the all-time Scottish League scoring list, and only Ally McCoist (282), Gordon Wallace (251) and Willie Wallace (246) have scored more than him since World War II.
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