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Saturday 29th July 2023

cinch SPFL Season Preview - 6 days to go...

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

  • Last season saw St Mirren secure their first ever top 6 finish since the split was introduced to the Scottish top flight. In the 23 years since the split was introduced, a total of 16 different clubs have finished in the top half, including all 12 of the current cinch Premiership clubs. Celtic are the only club who have finished in the top six in every single season since the split was introduced.
  • Airdrieonians return to the second tier for the first time in exactly a decade after defeating Hamilton Academical on penalties in the cinch Championship play-off final. It was seventh time lucky for the Diamonds, who had lost in the final of those play-offs on 6 previous occasions, including losing out to Morton in 2020/21 and Queen's Park in 2021/22. Rhys McCabe's side were the highest scorers in the lower leagues last season, finding the net 82 times across their 36 matches - the next highest scorers were Falkirk with 70.
  • The cinch Championship was the most competitive division of the SPFL last season, with the league title, relegation battle and the race for the promotion play-offs all being decided on the final day. 6 of the 10 clubs in the division were still in with a chance of promotion heading into the final fixture, and they were ultimately all only divided by 8 points in total, with Dundee ultimately winning the league, and Ayr United, Queen's Park and Partick Thistle edging out Greenock Morton and Inverness Caledonian Thistle in the race for the play-offs.
  • There will be several new faces in the dugouts in this season's cinch SPFL, with 6 clubs changing their manager over the summer. Brendan Rodgers returned to Celtic, Frankie McAvoy took over at Heart of Midlothian, Tony Docherty is now in charge at Dundee, Queen's Park appointed Robin Veldman, Michael Tidser took the reigns at Kelty Hearts and Brian McLean is the new boss at Clyde.
  • cinch League 1 is the most changed division in the SPFL for the coming season, with only 6 out of 10 clubs remaining from last season. Hamilton Academical and Cove Rangers were relegated into the league, while Stirling Albion and Annan Athletic were promoted. This division will feature 6 brand new fixtures in the Scottish football calendar - Annan Athletic will have their first league meetings with Falkirk, Hamilton and local rivals Queen of the South, Kelty Hearts will face Cove and Hamilton for the first time in the league, and Hamilton and Edinburgh City will also face off in the league for the first time.
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