2005–06 Scottish Premier League

The 2005–06 Scottish Premier League was won by Celtic, with a 17-point margin over their nearest challengers Hearts in the first season under the management of Gordon Strachan. Rangers, who finished third, failed to finish a Scottish top flight campaign as champions or runners-up for the first time since 1988.

Scottish Premier League

Season	2005–06
Dates	29 July 2005 – 7 May 2006
Champions	Celtic 4th Premier League title 40th Scottish title
Relegated	Livingston
Champions League	Celtic Hearts
UEFA Cup	Rangers Gretna
Intertoto Cup	Hibernian
Matches played	228
Goals scored	644 (2.82 per match)
Top goalscorer	Kris Boyd (32)
Biggest home win	Hibernian 7–0 Livingston
Biggest away win	Dunfermline 1–8 Celtic
← 2004–05 2006–07 →

As league champions, Celtic qualified for the UEFA Champions League, with runners-up Hearts also qualifying. This marked the first time since 1995 that a club outside the Old Firm of Celtic and Rangers finished in the top two. Third-placed Rangers qualified for the UEFA Cup, as did Scottish Second Division champions Gretna, who took the Scottish Cup place despite losing the final to Hearts.

Livingston were relegated, and Scottish First Division winners St Mirren were promoted.

Kris Boyd was the top scorer with 32 goals (17 for Rangers after 15 for Kilmarnock).

Teams

Promotion and relegation from 2004–05

Promoted from First Division to Premier League

• Falkirk

Relegated from Premier League to First Division

• Dundee

Stadia and locations

Aberdeen	Celtic	Dundee United	Falkirk
Pittodrie Stadium	Celtic Park	Tannadice Park	Falkirk Stadium
Capacity: 20,866[1]	Capacity: 60,411[2]	Capacity: 14,223[3]	Capacity: 7,937[4]
Dunfermline Athletic	Aberdeen Dundee United Dunfermline Athletic Falkirk Hearts Hibernian Inverness Caledonian Thistle Kilmarnock Livingston Rangers Celtic Motherwell Location of teams in 2005–06 Scottish Premier League		Heart of Midlothian
East End Park			Tynecastle Park
Capacity: 12,509[5]			Capacity: 17,420[6]
Hibernian			Inverness Caledonian Thistle
Easter Road			Caledonian Stadium
Capacity: 16,531[7]			Capacity: 7,500[8]
Kilmarnock	Livingston	Motherwell	Rangers
Rugby Park	Almondvale Stadium	Fir Park	Ibrox Stadium
Capacity: 17,889[9]	Capacity: 10,016[10]	Capacity: 13,677[11]	Capacity: 50,817[12]

Personnel

Team	Manager
Aberdeen	Jimmy Calderwood
Celtic	Gordon Strachan
Dundee United	Craig Brewster
Dunfermline Athletic	Jim Leishman
Falkirk	John Hughes
Heart of Midlothian	Valdas Ivanauskas
Hibernian	Tony Mowbray
Inverness Caledonian Thistle	Charlie Christie
Kilmarnock	Jim Jefferies
Livingston	John Robertson
Motherwell	Terry Butcher
Rangers	Alex McLeish

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Date of vacancy	Manner of departure	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Livingston	Richard Gough	22 May 2005	Resigned	Pre-season	Paul Lambert	1 June 2005
Celtic	Martin O'Neill	25 May 2005	Resigned		Gordon Strachan	1 June 2005
Heart of Midlothian	Steven Pressley John McGlynn	29 June 2005	End of caretaker spell		George Burley	30 June 2005
Heart of Midlothian	George Burley	21 October 2005	Mutual consent	1st	Graham Rix	8 November 2005
Dundee United	Gordon Chisholm	10 January 2006	Sacked	9th	Craig Brewster	13 January 2006
Inverness Caledonian Thistle	Craig Brewster	13 January 2006	Signed by Dundee United	7th	Charlie Christie	28 January 2006
Livingston	Paul Lambert	11 February 2006	Resigned	12th	John Robertson	15 February 2005
Heart of Midlothian	Graham Rix	22 March 2006	Sacked	2nd	Valdas Ivanauskas	22 March 2006

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation[a]
1	Celtic (C)	38	28	7	3	93	37	+56	91	Qualification for the Champions League group stage
2	Heart of Midlothian	38	22	8	8	71	31	+40	74	Qualification for the Champions League second qualifying round
3	Rangers	38	21	10	7	67	37	+30	73	Qualification for the UEFA Cup first round
4	Hibernian	38	17	5	16	61	56	+5	56	Qualification for the UEFA Intertoto Cup second round[b]
5	Kilmarnock	38	15	10	13	63	64	−1	55
6	Aberdeen	38	13	15	10	46	40	+6	54
7	Inverness Caledonian Thistle	38	15	13	10	51	38	+13	58
8	Motherwell	38	13	10	15	55	61	−6	49
9	Dundee United	38	7	12	19	41	66	−25	33
10	Falkirk	38	8	9	21	35	64	−29	33
11	Dunfermline Athletic	38	8	9	21	33	68	−35	33
12	Livingston (R)	38	4	6	28	25	79	−54	18	Relegation to the Scottish First Division

Source: Scottish Professional Football League
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. Teams played each other three times (33 matches), before the league split into two groups (the top six and the bottom six) for the last five matches.
2. Hibernian qualified for the 2006 UEFA Intertoto Cup by being the highest place applicant for the competition.

Results

Matches 1–22

During matches 1–22 each team played every other team twice (home and away).

Home \ Away	ABE	CEL	DUN	DNF	FAL	HOM	HIB	INV	KIL	LIV	MOT	RAN
Aberdeen		1–3	2–0	0–0	3–0	1–1	0–1	0–0	1–2	0–0	2–2	3–2
Celtic	2–0		2–0	0–1	3–1	1–1	3–2	2–1	4–2	2–1	5–0	3–0
Dundee United	1–1	2–4		2–1	2–1	0–3	1–0	1–1	0–0	2–0	1–1	0–0
Dunfermline Athletic	0–2	0–4	2–1		0–1	1–4	1–2	0–1	0–1	0–1	0–3	3–3
Falkirk	1–2	0–3	1–3	1–2		2–2	0–2	0–2	1–2	1–1	0–1	1–1
Heart of Midlothian	2–0	2–3	3–0	2–0	5–0		4–0	0–0	1–0	2–1	2–1	1–0
Hibernian	1–2	0–1	2–1	1–1	2–3	2–0		1–2	4–2	3–0	2–1	2–1
Inverness Caledonian Thistle	1–1	1–1	1–1	2–1	0–3	0–1	2–0		2–2	3–0	1–2	0–1
Kilmarnock	4–2	0–1	2–1	3–2	1–1	2–4	2–2	2–2		3–0	4–1	2–3
Livingston	0–0	0–5	1–0	1–1	0–2	1–4	1–2	1–1	0–3		1–2	2–2
Motherwell	3–1	4–4	4–5	1–0	5–0	1–1	1–3	0–2	2–2	1–0		0–1
Rangers	0–0	3–1	3–0	5–1	2–2	1–0	0–3	1–1	3–0	3–0	2–0

Source: ^{[citation needed]}
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Matches 23–33

During matches 23–33 each team played every other team once (either at home or away).

Home \ Away	ABE	CEL	DUN	DNF	FAL	HOM	HIB	INV	KIL	LIV	MOT	RAN
Aberdeen					1–0		1–0		2–2	3–0	2–2	2–0
Celtic	3–0		3–3		2–1	1–0		2–1
Dundee United	1–1					1–1		2–4	2–2	3–1		1–4
Dunfermline Athletic	1–0	1–8	1–1		1–1			2–2			1–1
Falkirk			1–0			1–2	0–0	1–4				1–2
Heart of Midlothian	1–2			4–0			4–1				3–0	1–1
Hibernian		1–2	3–1	3–1				0–2	2–1	7–0
Inverness Caledonian Thistle	0–1					0–0			3–3		0–1	2–3
Kilmarnock		1–4		1–0	2–1	1–0				3–1	2–0
Livingston		0–2		0–1	0–1	2–3		2–1
Motherwell		1–3	2–0		3–1		2–2			2–1
Rangers		0–1		1–0			2–0		4–0	4–1	1–0

Source: ^{[citation needed]}
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Matches 34–38

During matches 34–38 each team played every other team in their half of the table once.

Top six Home \ Away ABE CEL HOM HIB KIL RAN Aberdeen 2–2 4–0 0–0 Celtic 1–1 2–0 0–0 Heart of Midlothian 1–0 3–0 2–0 Hibernian 2–1 1–2 Kilmarnock 3–1 1–3 Rangers 1–1 2–0 Source: [citation needed] Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Bottom six Home \ Away DUN DNF FAL INV LIV MOT Dundee United 0–1 0–2 Dunfermline Athletic 0–1 3–2 Falkirk 0–0 1–0 1–1 Inverness Caledonian Thistle 1–0 2–0 Livingston 3–1 0–1 0–1 Motherwell 1–1 2–3 0–1 Source: [citation needed] Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Top scorers

Player	Club	Goals
Kris Boyd	Kilmarnock / Rangers	32
John Hartson	Celtic	18
Craig Dargo	Inverness CT	16
Derek Riordan	Hibernian	16
Rudi Skácel	Hearts	16
Maciej Żurawski	Celtic	16
Paul Hartley	Hearts	14
Peter Løvenkrands	Rangers	14
Shaun Maloney	Celtic	13
Steven Naismith	Kilmarnock	13
Mark Burchill	Dunfermline Athletic	12
Richie Foran	Motherwell	11

Source: SPL official website

Attendances

The average attendances for SPL clubs during the 2005/06 season are shown below:

Team	Average
Celtic	58,149
Rangers	49,245
Hearts	16,767
Hibernian	13,816
Aberdeen	12,727
Dundee United	8,197
Kilmarnock	7,070
Dunfermline Athletic	6,260
Motherwell	6,250
Falkirk	5,515
Inverness CT	5,061
Livingston	4,938

Source: SPL official website

Monthly awards

Main article: Scottish Premier League monthly awards

Month	Manager	Player	Young Player
August	George Burley (Hearts)	Rudolf Skácel (Hearts)	Steven Naismith (Kilmarnock)
September	George Burley (Hearts)	Andy Webster (Hearts)	Kevin Thomson (Hibernian)
October	Gordon Strachan (Celtic)	Stilian Petrov (Celtic)	Darryl Duffy (Falkirk)
November	Tony Mowbray (Hibernian)	Kris Boyd (Kilmarnock)	Aiden McGeady (Celtic)
December	Craig Brewster (Inverness CT)	Peter Løvenkrands (Rangers)	Calum Elliot (Hearts)
January	Alex McLeish (Rangers)	Kris Boyd (Rangers)	Steven Naismith (Kilmarnock)
February	Jimmy Calderwood (Aberdeen)	Maciej Żurawski (Celtic)	Charlie Mulgrew (Dundee United)
March	Terry Butcher (Motherwell)	Steven Naismith (Kilmarnock)	Brian McLean (Motherwell)
April	Jimmy Calderwood (Aberdeen)	Paul Hartley (Hearts)	Steven Smith (Rangers)