2008–09 Scottish First Division

The 2008–09 Scottish First Division was the 15th season of the First Division in its current format of ten teams.

Irn-Bru Scottish First Division

St Johnstone player Gary Irvine holding the First Division trophy in May 2009
Season	2008–09
Champions	St Johnstone
Promoted	St Johnstone
Relegated	Clyde
Top goalscorer	Stephen Dobbie (24)
Biggest home win	Queen of the South 7–1 Clyde
Biggest away win	Airdrie United 0–4 St Johnstone
← 2007–08 2009–10 →

Promotion and relegation from 2007–08

SPL & First Division

Promoted from First Division to Scottish Premier League

• Hamilton Academical^[1]

First & Second Divisions

Relegated from First Division to Second Division

• Stirling Albion^[2]

Promoted from Second Division to First Division

• Ross County (champions)^[3]
• Airdrie United (losing play-off finalists,^[4] promoted due to Gretna's relegation to Division Three)^[5]

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion, qualification or relegation
1	St Johnstone (C, P)	36	17	14	5	55	35	+20	65	Promotion to the Premier League
2	Partick Thistle	36	16	7	13	39	38	+1	55
3	Dunfermline Athletic	36	14	9	13	52	44	+8	51
4	Dundee	36	13	11	12	33	32	+1	50
5	Queen of the South	36	12	11	13	57	50	+7	47
6	Greenock Morton	36	12	11	13	40	40	0	47
7	Livingston (R)	36	13	8	15	56	58	−2	47[a]	Relegation to the Third Division
8	Ross County	36	13	8	15	42	46	−4	47
9	Airdrie United	36	10	12	14	29	43	−14	42[b]	Qualification for the First Division Play-offs[c]
10	Clyde (R)	36	10	9	17	41	58	−17	39	Relegation to the Second Division

Source: BBC Sport
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
(C) Champions; (P) Promoted; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. Demoted to 3rd Division for Financial Irregularities
2. Spared Relegation as Losing Finalist in the playoff due to Livingston
3. The 9th placed team will be entered into a play-off with the Second Division's 2nd, 3rd and 4th placed teams. The winning team will be awarded a place in the 2009–10 First Division.

Results

Teams play each other four times in this league. In the first half of the season each team plays every other team twice (home and away) and then do the same in the second half of the season.

First half of season

Home \ Away	AIR	CLY	DND	DNF	GMO	LIV	PAR	QOS	ROS	STJ
Airdrie United		0–2	0–0	1–3	5–0	0–0	0–1	2–0	0–2	1–1
Clyde	1–0		1–0	0–2	1–1	2–1	1–1	0–2	2–2	2–2
Dundee	1–1	1–0		0–0	1–0	0–3	0–0	2–0	1–2	1–1
Dunfermline Athletic	0–0	4–4	0–1		0–1	1–2	1–0	2–1	3–1	1–2
Greenock Morton	2–0	1–0	2–0	1–1		1–2	2–0	0–0	2–1	2–2
Livingston	1–2	2–1	1–2	2–3	1–0		3–1	2–0	2–0	0–1
Partick Thistle	2–1	2–0	0–0	1–0	2–1	2–1		2–0	0–1	4–0
Queen of the South	0–0	0–2	3–1	1–2	1–4	6–1	2–0		1–0	2–2
Ross County	2–0	3–0	1–2	2–1	3–0	1–4	1–0	0–2		1–2
St Johnstone	3–1	2–3	2–0	0–3	1–0	2–0	3–0	0–0	2–1

Source: BBC Sport
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Second half of season

Home \ Away	AIR	CLY	DND	DNF	GMO	LIV	PAR	QOS	ROS	STJ
Airdrie United		1–0	1–0	1–1	1–0	4–4	0–1	2–0	1–0	0–4
Clyde	3–0		2–0	1–4	2–4	0–1	2–4	1–1	2–0	1–3
Dundee	0–1	2–1		1–0	0–0	4–1	4–0	2–3	2–0	0–1
Dunfermline Athletic	1–1	1–1	1–1		2–1	1–0	0–1	0–2	1–2	1–3
Greenock Morton	0–0	2–0	2–0	2–1		2–2	0–1	2–2	0–2	0–0
Livingston	1–1	1–1	0–1	4–2	0–2		2–4	2–2	4–2	1–0
Partick Thistle	0–1	0–1	1–1	2–3	1–0	1–0		0–2	0–2	0–0
Queen of the South	4–0	7–1	0–1	0–3	1–1	3–3	2–2		1–2	3–3
Ross County	0–0	0–0	1–1	1–3	1–1	2–2	0–2	1–0		2–2
St Johnstone	3–0	1–0	0–0	0–0	3–1	1–0	1–1	2–3	0–0

Source: BBC Sport
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Top scorers

Rank	Scorer	Team	Goals
1	Stephen Dobbie	Queen of the South	24
2	Leigh Griffiths	Livingston	18
3	Andy Kirk	Dunfermline Athletic	15
4	Steven Milne	St Johnstone	14
	Mickaël Antoine-Curier	Dundee
6	Pat Clarke	Clyde	11
7	Simon Lynch	Airdrie United	10
	Steven Craig	Ross County
	Sean Higgins	Ross County
10	Peter Weatherson	Greenock Morton	9
	Brian Wake	Greenock Morton
	Gary Harkins	Partick Thistle
13	Nick Phinn	Dunfermline Athletic	8
14	Colin McMenamin	Dundee	7
15	William McLaren	Clyde	6
	Ruari MacLennan	Clyde

Source: The League Insider

Attendance

Team	Stadium	Capacity	Highest	Lowest	Average
Dundee	Dens Park	11,856	6,537	2,831	3,995
St Johnstone	McDiarmid Park	10,673	7,238	2,259	3,502
Dunfermline Athletic	East End Park	11,998	4,998	1,371	3,255
Partick Thistle	Firhill Stadium	10,887	3,378	2,296	2,956
Queen of the South	Palmerston Park	6,412	3,339	2,029	2,720
Greenock Morton	Cappielow	11,612	3,323	1,685	2,279
Ross County	Victoria Park	6,310	3,444	1,625	2,279
Livingston	Almondvale Stadium	10,016	2,169	1,068	1,728
Airdrie United	New Broomfield	10,171	2,165	633	1,356
Clyde	Broadwood Stadium	8,006	2,114	776	1,236

Source: The League Insider

Kits and shirt sponsors

Team	Kit supplier	Shirt sponsor(s)	Notes
Airdrie United	Surridge	St. Andrew's Hospice	New home strip.[6]
Clyde	Surridge	Optical Express/Reface Scotland	New kit supplier and new away kit sponsor. Reface Scotland are away kit sponsor.[7]
Dundee	Bukta	Bukta	New home kit, Bukta replace Signitures4U as sponsor.[8]
Dunfermline Athletic	Puma	The Purvis Group	New kit supplier, return to traditional black and white striped home kit.[9]
Greenock Morton	Bukta	Millions	New home kit[10]
Livingston	Macron	RDF Consulting	New kit supplier Macron replacing Nike with a new yellow home kit, while IT solutions provider RDF Consulting sponsor the Lions for the next two seasons.[11]
Partick Thistle	Puma	Ignis Asset Management	Puma replace Diadora as kit supplier.[12]
Queen of the South	Surridge	JB Houston Butchers/Maxwelltown Builders	New home and away kits. Home kit is traditional blue and Away kit is red. JB Houston Butchers displayed on front of shirt, Maxwelltown Builders at the back.[13]
Ross County	Adidas	HIGHnet
St Johnstone	Surridge	George Wimpey	New home kit[citation needed]

Managerial changes

See also: 2008–09 in Scottish football § Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Replaced by	Date of appointment	Table position[14]
Dundee	Alex Rae	Sacked	20 October[15]	Jocky Scott	30 October[16]	8
Livingston	Roberto Landi	Sacked	1 December[17]	Paul Hegarty	5 December[18]	5
Livingston	Paul Hegarty	Suspended	25 April[19]	John Murphy	30 June[20]	6

Monthly awards

Main article: Scottish Football League monthly awards

Month	First Division manager		SFL Player		SFL Young player
	Manager	Club	Player	Club	Player	Club
August[21]	Roberto Landi	Livingston	Stephen Robertson	Airdrie United	Leigh Griffiths	Livingston
September[22]	Jim McIntyre	Dunfermline Athletic	Paul McManus	East Fife	Calum Elliot	Livingston
October[23]	Derek McInnes	St Johnstone	Steven Milne	St Johnstone	Dominic Shimmin	Greenock Morton
November[24]	Jocky Scott	Dundee	Bryan Prunty	Ayr United	Kyle Benedictus	Dundee
December[25]	John Brown	Clyde	Alan Main	St Johnstone	Chris McMenamin	Berwick Rangers
January[26]	Ian McCall	Partick Thistle	Willie McLaren	Clyde	Bobby Barr	Albion Rovers
February[27]	Jocky Scott	Dundee	Gary Harkins	Partick Thistle	Fraser McLaren	Berwick Rangers
March[28]	Paul Hegarty	Livingston	Kevin Rutkiewicz	St Johnstone	Leigh Griffiths	Livingston
April[29]	Gordon Chisholm	Queen of the South	Stephen Dobbie	Queen of the South	Kevin Moon	St Johnstone

First Division play-offs

Semi-finals

The ninth placed team in the First Division played the fourth placed team in the Second Division and third placed team in the Second Division played the second placed team in the Second Division. The play-offs were played over two legs, the winning team in each semi-final advanced to the final.

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Airdrie United	4 – 1	Peterhead	2–0	2–1
Brechin City	2 – 5	Ayr United	0–2	2–3

First legs

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Brechin City	0 – 2	Ayr United
	Report	Aitken 8' 36' (pen.)

13 May 2009

19:45

Glebe Park, Brechin

Attendance: 902

Referee: B Winter

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Peterhead	0 – 2	Airdrie United
	Report	Baird 9' McLaughlin 47'

14 May 2009

19:45

Balmoor, Peterhead

Attendance: 1,364

Referee: C MacKay

Second legs

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Ayr United	3 – 2	Brechin City
Prunty 15' Connolly 70' Aitken 72'	Report	McAllister 38' 53' (pen.)

16 May 2009

15:00

Somerset Park, Ayr

Attendance: 1,974

Referee: C Allan

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Airdrie United	2 – 1	Peterhead
Smyth 61' Baird 85'	Report	McKay 45'

17 May 2008

15:00

New Broomfield, Airdrie

Attendance: 1,008

Referee: S Finnie

Final

The two semi-final winners played each other over two legs. The winning team was awarded a place in the 2009–10 First Division.

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Airdrie United	2 – 3	Ayr United	2–2	0–1

First leg

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Ayr United	2 – 2	Airdrie United
Roberts 48' 67'	Report	di Giacomo 30' Baird 43'

20 May 2009

19:45

Somerset Park, Ayr

Attendance: 3,378

Referee: E Smith

Second leg

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Airdrie United	0 – 1	Ayr United
	Report	Stevenson 29'

24 May 2009

15:15

New Broomfield, Airdrie

Attendance: 3,303

Referee: I Brines