2018–19 Scottish Premiership

Scottish Premiership 2018-19
Season information
Dates	4 August 2018 – 19 May 2019
Winners	Celtic (6th title)
Relegated	Dundee
Domestic cup winners
Scottish Cup	Celtic or Heart of Midlothian
Scottish League Cup	Celtic
Continental cup qualifiers
Champions League	Celtic
Europa League	Rangers Kilmarnock Aberdeen
Season statistics
Matches played	228
Goals scored	578
Average	(2.54 per match)
Top goalscorer	Alfredo Morelos (18 goals)
Biggest home win	Hibernian 6–0 Hamilton (6 October 2018) Rangers 7–1 Motherwell (11 November 2018)
Biggest away win	St Johnstone 0–6 Celtic (7 October 2018)
Highest scoring	Rangers 7–1 Motherwell (11 November 2018)
← 2017–18	2019–20 →

The 2018–19 Scottish Premiership (known as the Ladbrokes Premiership for sponsorship reasons) was the sixth season of the Scottish Premiership, the highest division of Scottish football. The fixtures were published on 15 June 2018 and the season will begin on 4 August 2018.

Twelve teams contested the league: Aberdeen, Celtic, Dundee, Hamilton Academical, Heart of Midlothian, Hibernian, Kilmarnock, Livingston, Motherwell, Rangers, St Johnstone and St Mirren.

On 4 May 2019, Celtic won their eighth consecutive title and 50th overall after a 3–0 win over Aberdeen.

Teams

To Premiership St Mirren secured the Championship title and promotion to the Premiership on 14 April 2018 after a goalless draw with Livingston, who were also promoted after winning the play-off final.

To Championship Ross County were relegated to the Championship on 12 May 2018 after a 1–1 draw with St Johnstone. Partick Thistle were also relegated following a 3–1 aggregate defeat to Livingston in the play-off final.

Personnel and kits

Team	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
Aberdeen	McInnes, DerekDerek McInnes	Shinnie, GraemeGraeme Shinnie	Adidas	Saltire Energy
Celtic	Lennon, NeilNeil Lennon (interim)	Brown, ScottScott Brown	New Balance	Dafabet
Dundee	McIntyre, JimJim McIntyre	Miller, KennyKenny Miller	Puma	McEwan Fraser Legal
Hamilton Academical	Rice, BrianBrian Rice	MacKinnon, DarianDarian MacKinnon	Adidas	SuperSeal (H), NetBet (A)
Heart of Midlothian	Levein, CraigCraig Levein	Berra, ChristopheChristophe Berra	Umbro	Save the Children
Hibernian	Heckingbottom, PaulPaul Heckingbottom	David Gray	Macron	Marathonbet
Kilmarnock	Clarke, SteveSteve Clarke	Boyd, KrisKris Boyd	Nike	QTS
Livingston	Holt, GaryGary Holt	Halkett, CraigCraig Halkett	FBT	Tony Macaroni
Motherwell	Robinson, StephenStephen Robinson	Hartley, PeterPeter Hartley	Macron	McEwan Fraser Legal
Rangers	Gerrard, StevenSteven Gerrard	Tavernier, JamesJames Tavernier	Hummel	32Red
St Johnstone	Wright, TommyTommy Wright	Shaughnessy, JoeJoe Shaughnessy	Joma	Alan Storrar Cars
St Mirren	Kearney, OranOran Kearney	McGinn, StephenStephen McGinn	Joma	Skyview Capital

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Rangers	Nicholl, JimmyJimmy Nicholl	End of interim	13 May 2018	Pre-season	Gerrard, StevenSteven Gerrard	1 June 2018
St Mirren	Ross, JackJack Ross	Signed by Sunderland	25 May 2018		Stubbs, AlanAlan Stubbs	8 June 2018
Livingston	Hopkin, DavidDavid Hopkin	Contract expired	31 May 2018		Miller, KennyKenny Miller	30 June 2018
Livingston	Miller, KennyKenny Miller	Mutual consent	20 August 2018	9th	Holt, GaryGary Holt	23 August 2018
St Mirren	Stubbs, AlanAlan Stubbs	Sacked	3 September 2018	11th	Kearney, OranOran Kearney	7 September 2018
Dundee	McCann, NeilNeil McCann		16 October 2018	12th	McIntyre, JimJim McIntyre	17 October 2018
Hamilton Academical	Canning, MartinMartin Canning	Mutual consent	29 January 2019	10th	Rice, BrianBrian Rice	31 January 2019
Hibernian	Lennon, NeilNeil Lennon		30 January 2019	8th	Eddie May (caretaker)	30 January 2019
	Eddie May	End of caretaker spell	13 February 2019	8th	Heckingbottom, PaulPaul Heckingbottom	13 February 2019
Celtic	Rodgers, BrendanBrendan Rodgers	Signed by Leicester City	26 February 2019	1st	Lennon, NeilNeil Lennon (interim)	26 February 2019
Dundee	Jim McIntyre	Sacked	12 May 2019	12th	McPake, JamesJames McPake (interim)	13 May 2019

Format

Basic

In the initial phase of the season, the 12 teams will play a round-robin tournament whereby each team plays each one of the other teams three times. After 33 games, the league splits into two sections of six teams, with each team playing each other in that section. The league attempts to balance the fixture list so that teams in the same section play each other twice at home and twice away, but sometimes this is impossible. A total of 228 matches will be played, with 38 matches played by each team.

League summary

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Celtic  (C)	38	27	6	5	77	20	+57	87	Qualification for the Champions League first qualifying round
2	Rangers	38	23	9	6	82	27	+55	78	Qualification for the Europa League first qualifying round
3	Kilmarnock	38	19	10	9	50	31	+19	67
4	Aberdeen	38	20	7	11	57	44	+13	67
5	Hibernian	38	14	12	12	51	39	+12	54
6	Heart of Midlothian	38	15	6	17	42	50	−8	51
7	St Johnstone	38	15	7	16	38	48	−10	52
8	Motherwell	38	15	6	17	46	56	−10	51
9	Livingston	38	11	11	16	42	44	−2	44
10	Hamilton Academical	38	9	6	23	28	75	−47	33
11	St. Mirren  (O)	38	8	8	22	34	66	−32	32	Qualification to Premiership play-offs
12	Dundee  (R)	38	5	6	27	31	78	−47	21	Relegation to the Championship

Updated to games played on 19 May 2019
Source: BBC Sport
Rules for classification: 1st points; 2nd goal difference; 3rd number of goals scored.
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round; (Q) = Qualified to the phase of tournament

Positions by round

The table lists the positions of teams after each week of matches. In order to preserve chronological progress, any postponed matches are not included in the round at which they were originally scheduled but added to the full round they were played immediately afterwards. For example, if a match is scheduled for matchday 13, but then postponed and played between days 16 and 17, it will be added to the standings for day 16.

	Leader – Qualification for Champions League first qualifying round
	Qualification for Europa League first qualifying round
	Qualification for Premiership play-off final
	Relegation to 2019–20 Championship

Team \ Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34	35	36	37	38
Celtic	3	6	2	2	2	6	5	3	2	3	2	2	1	1	2	3	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Rangers	7	3	4	7	4	2	6	6	5	5	4	3	3	2	1	2	2	2	2	2	2	3	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2
Kilmarnock	4	4	6	3	7	5	4	4	3	2	3	4	4	4	3	1	3	3	4	3	3	2	3	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	3	3	3	4	4	3	3	3
Aberdeen	6	5	5	8	8	7	7	7	7	8	8	7	6	6	7	6	6	4	3	4	4	4	4	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	4	4	4	3	3	4	4	4
Hibernian	2	2	3	6	5	3	2	2	6	6	5	6	8	7	8	8	8	8	7	8	8	8	7	7	8	8	6	6	6	6	6	6	5	5	5	5	5	5
Hearts	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	2	3	4	4	4	5	5	5	5	6	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	6	6	6	6	6	6
St Johnstone	10	10	8	5	6	8	8	8	8	7	7	5	5	5	5	5	5	7	8	6	6	5	6	6	6	6	7	7	8	7	8	7	7	7	7	7	7	7
Motherwell	12	12	11	9	9	10	10	10	10	10	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	7	7	8	8	7	8	7	8	8	8	8	8	8	8
Livingston	9	9	7	4	3	4	3	5	4	4	6	8	7	8	6	7	7	6	6	7	7	7	8	8	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9
Hamilton Academical	11	8	9	10	11	9	9	9	9	9	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	11	11	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10
St Mirren	5	7	10	11	10	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	12	11	11	11	11	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	11
Dundee	8	11	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	11	12	12	12	12	11	11	11	11	10	10	11	11	11	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12

Updated: 19 May 2019

Premiership play-offs

The quarter-final was contested by Ayr United and Inverness Caledonian Thistle, with Inverness Caledonian Thistle advancing to the semi-final where they lost to Dundee United. Dundee United will play-off against St Mirren in the final, with the winners securing the last place in the 2019–20 Premiership.

Quarter-final

First leg

7 May 2019	Ayr United	1–3	Inverness Caledonian Thistle	Ayr
19:45	Rose  65'	Report	Trafford  33' White  51', 76' (pen.)	Stadium: Somerset Park Attendance: 2,171 Referee: Alan Muir

Second leg

11 May 2019	Inverness Caledonian Thistle	1–1 (4–2 agg.)	Ayr United	Inverness
15:00	Donaldson  79'	Report	McCowan  19'	Stadium: Caledonian Stadium Attendance: 2,323 Referee: Steven McLean

Semi-final

First leg

14 May 2019	Inverness Caledonian Thistle	0–1	Dundee United	Inverness
19:45		Report	McMullan  78'	Stadium: Caledonian Stadium Attendance: 2,604 Referee: Nick Walsh

Second leg

17 May 2019	Dundee United	3–0 (4–0 agg.)	Inverness Caledonian Thistle	Dundee
19:45	Clark  45' (pen) Sow  54' Šafranko  80'	Report		Stadium: Tannadice Park Attendance: 8,504 Referee: Kevin Clancy

Final

First leg

23 May 2019	Dundee United	0–0	St Mirren	Dundee
19:45		Report		Stadium: Tannadice Park Attendance: 11,062 Referee: Bobby Madden

Second leg

26 May 2019	St Mirren	1–1 (1–1 agg.) (2–0 pen)	Dundee United	Paisley
15:00	Mullen  26' Nazon  115'	Report	Clark  23' (pen.)	Stadium: St Mirren Park Referee: John Beaton
		Penalties
	McGinn Popescu Mužek		Pawlett Šafranko Sow Booth

Season statistics

Scoring

Top scorers

As of 19 May 2019

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Alfredo Morelos	Rangers	18
2	Sam Cosgrove	Aberdeen	17
3	Odsonne Édouard	Celtic	15
	David Turnbull	Motherwell
5	James Tavernier	Rangers	14
6	James Forrest	Celtic	11
	Eamonn Brophy	Kilmarnock
	Scott Arfield	Rangers
9	Steven Naismith	Heart of Midlothian	10

Hat-tricks

Player	For	Against	Score	Date
Steven Naismith	Hearts	St Mirren	4–1 (H)	1 September 2018
James Forrest4	Celtic	St Johnstone	0–6 (A)	7 October 2018
Kenny Miller	Dundee	Hamilton Academical	4–0 (H)	5 December 2018
Scott Sinclair	Celtic	Aberdeen	3–4 (A)	26 December 2018
Scott Arfield	Rangers	Motherwell	0–3 (A)	7 April 2019
Cody Cooke	St Mirren	Dundee	2–3 (A)	18 May 2019

Note ⁴ Player scored four goals; (H) = Home, (A) = Away

Attendances

These are the average attendances of the teams.

Pos	Team	Total	High	Low	Average	Change
1	Celtic	1,097,782	59,143	54,563	57,778	0.0013171120585076+0.1%†
2	Rangers	941,720	50,130	48,729	49,564	0.0079515181095318+0.7%†
3	Hibernian	337,078	20,200	15,096	17,740	-0.97886663355957−2.1%†
4	Heart of Midlothian	333,724	19,967	15,147	17,564	-0.95306310705953−4.6%†
5	Aberdeen	283,567	20,027	12,252	14,924	-0.94605388272583−5.3%†
6	Kilmarnock	130,999	12,374	4,143	6,894	0.27903525046382+27.9%†
7	Dundee	114,469	8,578	4,426	6,024	0.012947704725071+1.2%†
8	Motherwell	103,518	9,545	3,662	5,448	0–†
9	St Mirren	101,680	7,288	4,001	5,351	0.20328311221048+20.3%†
10	St Johnstone	73,937	7,086	1,946	3,891	0.021527960094513+2.1%†
11	Livingston	69,616	9,246	1,022	3,664	1.7181008902077+171.8%†
12	Hamilton Academical	53,760	5,827	1,135	2,829	-0.9140549273021−8.5%†
	League total	3,641,850	59,143	1,022	15,973	0.0025734371077077+0.2%†

Updated to games played on 19 May 2019
Source: BBC

Broadcasting

Live Matches

The SPFL allows Sky Sports and BT Sport to broadcast up to six live home matches (combined) for each club, although this is only four for Celtic and Rangers. The TV deal allows the broadcasters to show 30 games each (and the play-offs for BT Sport) and provides approximately £21m to the SPFL per season.

Highlights

Sky Sports hold the rights to Saturday night highlights and show the Scottish Premiership goals on Sky Sports News in their Goals Express programme. Gaelic-language channel BBC Alba can broadcast in full the repeat of 38 Saturday 3pm matches "as live" at 5.30pm. The main Premiership highlights programme is BBC Scotland's Sportscene programme, which shows in-depth highlights of all six Premiership matches every weekend. STV show the goals on Monday nights during the Sport section of their News at Six programme as well as during their weeknight football-debate show on STV2. The SPFL also uploads the goals from every Premiership match onto its YouTube channel - available from 6pm on a Sunday for UK and Ireland viewers and 10pm on a Saturday for those worldwide.

External links

• Official Site

Football Seasons in Scotland

Football League

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Premier Division

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