2010–11 Scottish Third Division

The 2010–11 Scottish Football League Third Division (also known as the 2010–11 Irn-Bru Scottish Football League Third Division for sponsorship reasons) was the 17th season in the format of ten teams in the fourth-tier of Scottish football. The season started on 7 August 2011 and ended on 7 May 2011. Arbroath F.C. sealed the title, their first honour in their 133-year history, after a 4-1 win over local rivals Montrose on 23 April 2011.^[1][2]

Irn-Bru Scottish Third Division

Season	2010–11
Champions	Arbroath
Promoted	Arbroath, Albion Rovers (via Division 2 Play-offs)
Relegated	n/a
Matches played	180
Goals scored	555 (3.08 per match)
Top goalscorer	Gavin Swankie (21)
Biggest home win	Montrose 8–1 Clyde (25 September 2010)
Biggest away win	Montrose 0–5 Arbroath (2 January 2011) Berwick Rangers 1–6 Albion Rovers (15 March 2011)
Highest scoring	Montrose 8–1 Clyde (25 September 2010)
Longest winning run	6 games Queen's Park
Longest unbeaten run	12 games Queen's Park
Longest winless run	14 games Clyde
Longest losing run	7 games Clyde
Highest attendance	1243: Arbroath 4–1 Montrose (23 April 2011)
Lowest attendance	178: East Stirlingshire 1–5 Annan Athletic (15 March 2011)
← 2009–10 2011–12 →

Teams

Promotion and relegation from 2009–10

Albion Rovers

Annan

Berwick Rangers

Clyde

East Stirlingshire

Elgin City

Montrose

Arbroath

Queen's Park

Stranraer

Location of teams in 2010–11 Scottish Third Division

Livingston as champions of the 2009–10 season were directly promoted to the 2010–11 Scottish Second Division. Thus completing only a one-year stay in the bottom tier of the Scottish Football League. They were replaced by Clyde who finished bottom of the 2009–10 Scottish Second Division.

A second promotion place was available via a play-off tournament between the ninth-placed team of the 2009–10 Scottish Second Division, Arbroath, and the sides ranked second, third and fourth in the 2009–10 Scottish Third Division, Forfar Athletic, East Stirlingshire and Queen's Park respectively. The play off was won by Forfar Athletic who defeated Arbroath in the final. Arbroath were therefore relegated.

Relegated from Second Division to Third Division

• Clyde
• Arbroath (via play-offs)

Promoted from Third Division to Second Division

• Livingston
• Forfar Athletic (via play-offs)

Stadia and locations

Team	Location	Stadium	Capacity [3]
Albion Rovers	Coatbridge	Cliftonhill	2,496
Annan Athletic	Annan	Galabank	3,000
Arbroath	Arbroath	Gayfield Park	4,153
Berwick Rangers	Berwick-upon-Tweed	Shielfield Park	4,065
Clyde	Cumbernauld	Broadwood	8,006
East Stirlingshire	Stenhousemuir	Ochilview Park[A]	3,746
Elgin City	Elgin	Borough Briggs	3,716
Montrose	Montrose	Links Park	3,292
Queen's Park	Glasgow	Hampden Park	52,025
Stranraer	Stranraer	Stair Park	6,250

A.^ East Stirlingshire ground shared with Stenhousemuir.^[4]

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion or qualification
1	Arbroath (C, P)	36	20	6	10	80	61	+19	66	Promotion to the Second Division
2	Albion Rovers (O, P)	36	17	10	9	56	40	+16	61	Qualification for the Second Division Play-offs
3	Queen's Park	36	18	5	13	57	43	+14	59
4	Annan Athletic	36	16	11	9	58	45	+13	59
5	Stranraer	36	15	12	9	72	57	+15	57
6	Berwick Rangers	36	12	13	11	62	56	+6	49
7	Elgin City	36	13	6	17	53	63	−10	45
8	Montrose	36	10	7	19	47	61	−14	37
9	East Stirlingshire	36	10	4	22	33	62	−29	34
10	Clyde	36	8	8	20	37	67	−30	32

Source: SPFL
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
(C) Champions; (O) Play-off winners; (P) Promoted

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, for a total of 36 games

First half of season

Home \ Away	ALB	ANN	ARB	BER	CLY	EST	ELG	MON	QPA	STR
Albion Rovers		0–0	0–2	2–2	3–1	1–0	3–1	3–1	2–1	1–2
Annan Athletic	4–1		1–2	1–1	0–2	3–1	0–1	2–2	2–1	2–2
Arbroath	1–1	0–2		3–2	3–2	2–0	2–0	4–0	1–0	0–0
Berwick Rangers	1–6	2–2	4–1		2–1	3–0	6–2	1–0	1–1	2–2
Clyde	1–2	0–2	1–1	1–4		1–2	1–1	1–1	2–3	2–2
East Stirlingshire	0–0	1–5	1–3	0–0	0–0		0–2	2–1	0–1	0–1
Elgin City	2–2	2–0	3–5	1–2	0–1	0–2		3–2	4–2	1–2
Montrose	0–2	1–1	3–0	1–1	8–1	0–2	0–1		1–2	3–3
Queen's Park	0–1	3–0	5–2	0–2	0–1	2–0	1–1	1–0		1–3
Stranraer	3–2	2–2	4–1	1–1	3–1	4–1	2–1	1–2	1–0

Updated to match(es) played on 26 April 2011. Source: BBC Sport
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Second half of season

Home \ Away	ALB	ANN	ARB	BER	CLY	EST	ELG	MON	QPA	STR
Albion Rovers		0–0	3–0	0–1	1–1	2–0	2–0	0–2	1–2	1–0
Annan Athletic	2–2		3–0	2–3	1–0	2–1	2–2	2–1	1–2	2–1
Arbroath	3–0	2–1		2–1	2–0	3–5	3–5	4–1	2–2	2–2
Berwick Rangers	2–2	2–3	0–4		1–1	1–1	4–0	0–1	3–1	3–3
Clyde	0–1	0–2	0–3	2–0		2–0	3–3	2–0	0–2	4–2
East Stirlingshire	1–2	2–0	2–5	1–0	2–0		2–1	1–2	3–2	0–2
Elgin City	1–1	2–3	3–2	3–2	0–1	2–0		1–0	0–1	2–1
Montrose	0–2	0–1	0–5	1–1	3–1	3–0	1–0		0–2	3–2
Queen's Park	2–1	0–1	1–1	1–0	4–0	2–0	1–0	4–1		3–3
Stranraer	1–3	1–1	3–4	3–1	3–0	2–0	1–2	2–2	2–1

Updated to match(es) played on 7 May 2011. Source: ESPN soccernet
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Statistics

Top goalscorers

21 goals

• Gavin Swankie (Arbroath)

17 goals

• Darren Gribben (Berwick Rangers)
• Armand One (Stranraer)

16 goals

• Steven Doris (Arbroath)

14 goals

• Craig Malcolm (Stranraer)
• Ian Harty (Annan Athletic)

13 goals

• Scott Agnew (Stranraer)

Hat-tricks

Player	For	Against	Result	Date
Darren Gribben	Berwick Rangers	Elgin City	6–2	14 August 2010
Darren Gribben	Berwick Rangers	Arbroath	4–1	11 September 2010
Paul Tosh	Montrose	Clyde	8–1	25 September 2010
Steven Doris	Arbroath	Montrose	4–0	13 November 2010
Gavin Swankie	Arbroath	Stranraer	4–3	29 January 2011
Armand One	Stranraer	East Stirlingshire	4–1	23 February 2011
Damon Gray	Berwick Rangers	Elgin City	4–0	5 March 2011
Scott Chaplain	Albion Rovers	Berwick Rangers	6–1	15 March 2011
Gavin Swankie	Arbroath	East Stirlingshire	5–2	19 March 2011
Jamie Longworth	Queen's Park	Montrose	4–1	7 May 2011
David Gormley	Elgin City	Arbroath	5–3	7 May 2011

See also

• Scottish football referee strike