2017–18 Scottish Championship

The 2017–18 Scottish Championship (known as the Ladbrokes Championship for sponsorship reasons) was the 24th season in the current format of 10 teams in the second tier of Scottish football. The fixtures were published on 23 June 2017.^[3]

Ladbrokes Championship

Season	2017–18
Champions	St Mirren
Promoted	St Mirren Livingston
Relegated	Dumbarton Brechin City
Matches played	180
Goals scored	472 (2.62 per match)
Top goalscorer	Stephen Dobbie (18 goals)[1]
Biggest home win	Falkirk 6–1 Dundee United[2] (6 January 2018) St Mirren 5–0 Dumbarton[2] (27 March 2018)
Biggest away win	Brechin City 0–5 Dundee United[2] (17 April 2018)
Highest scoring	Dunfermline Athletic 2–5 Queen of the South[2] (9 December 2017) Falkirk 6–1 Dundee United[2] (6 January 2018) Dumbarton 2–5 Falkirk[2] (21 April 2018)
Longest winning run	5 matches:[2] Inverness CT
Longest unbeaten run	11 matches:[2] Inverness CT Livingston
Longest winless run	36 matches:[2] Brechin City
Longest losing run	16 matches:[2] Brechin City
Highest attendance	7,585[2] Dunfermline Athletic 1–3 Dundee United (30 September 2017)
Lowest attendance	392[2] Dumbarton 0–1 Inverness CT (18 April 2018)
Total attendance	518,654[2]
Average attendance	2,881[2]
← 2016–17 2018–19 → All statistics correct as of 28 April 2018.

Ten teams contested the league: Brechin City, Dumbarton, Dundee United, Dunfermline Athletic, Falkirk, Greenock Morton, Inverness CT, Livingston, Queen of the South and St Mirren.

St Mirren won the league title, and promotion to the Premiership, after a 0–0 draw with Livingston on 14 April 2018.^[4]

Brechin City became the first team in 126 years to go through a Scottish league season without a win. Their total of 4 points was the lowest ever recorded in the Scottish second tier, the lowest in the three points for a win era and the joint-lowest in any Scottish division.^[5]

Prize money

In April 2018, the SPFL confirmed the prize money to be allocated to the league members at the conclusion of the competitions. The Championship winners would receive £533,000 with a total pot of £24.5 million to be distributed across the four divisions.^[6]

Teams

The following teams have changed division since the 2016–17 season.

To Championship Promoted from Scottish League One Brechin City Livingston Relegated from Scottish Premiership Inverness Caledonian Thistle

From Championship Relegated to Scottish League One Ayr United Raith Rovers Promoted to Scottish Premiership Hibernian

Stadia and locations

Brechin City	Dumbarton	Dundee United	Dunfermline Athletic
Glebe Park	Dumbarton Football Stadium	Tannadice Park	East End Park
Capacity: 4,083[7]	Capacity: 2,020[8]	Capacity: 14,223[9]	Capacity: 11,480[10]
Falkirk	Brechin City Dumbarton Dundee Utd Dunfermline Athletic Falkirk Morton Inverness Caledonian Thistle Livingston Queen of the South St Mirren		Greenock Morton
Falkirk Stadium			Cappielow Park
Capacity: 7,937[11]			Capacity: 11,589[12]
Inverness Caledonian Thistle	Livingston	Queen of the South	St Mirren
Caledonian Stadium	Almondvale Stadium	Palmerston Park	Paisley 2021 Stadium
Capacity: 7,750[13]	Capacity: 8,716[14]	Capacity: 8,690[15]	Capacity: 8,023[16]

Personnel and kits

Team	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
Brechin City	Darren Dods	Paul McLean[17]	Pendle	Delson
Dumbarton	Stephen Aitken	Andy Dowie[18]	Joma[19]	Turnberry Homes[19]
Dundee United	Csaba László	Tam Scobbie[20]	Nike[21]	McEwan Fraser Legal[21]
Dunfermline Athletic	Allan Johnston	Callum Morris[22]	Joma[23]	SRJ Windows[23]
Falkirk	Paul Hartley	Aaron Muirhead	Puma[24]	Central Demolition[24]
Greenock Morton	Jim Duffy	Thomas O'Ware[25]	Vision Outsourcing[26]	Millions[26]
Inverness CT	John Robertson	Gary Warren[27]	Erreà[28]	McEwan Fraser Legal[28]
Livingston	David Hopkin	Craig Halkett[29]	FBT[30]	Tony Macaroni[30]
Queen of the South	Gary Naysmith	John Rankin[31]	Macron[32]	J.B. Houston[33]
St Mirren	Jack Ross	Stephen McGinn[34]	Joma[35]	Skyview Capital[35]

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Inverness CT	Richie Foran	Sacked	29 May 2017[36]	Pre-season	John Robertson	14 June 2017[37]
Falkirk	Peter Houston	Sacked	24 September 2017[38]	9th	Alex Smith (interim)	24 September 2017[38]
Falkirk	Alex Smith (interim)	End of interim	4 October 2017[39]	8th	Paul Hartley	4 October 2017[39]
Dundee United	Ray McKinnon	Sacked	24 October 2017[40]	4th	Laurie Ellis (interim)	25 October 2017[41]
Dundee United	Laurie Ellis (interim)	End of interim	8 November 2017[42]	2nd	Csaba László	8 November 2017[42]

League summary

League table

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion, qualification or relegation
1	St Mirren (C, P)	36	23	5	8	63	36	+27	74	Promotion to the Premiership
2	Livingston (O, P)	36	17	11	8	56	37	+19	62	Qualification for the Premiership play-off semi-final
3	Dundee United	36	18	7	11	52	42	+10	61	Qualification for the Premiership play-off quarter-final
4	Dunfermline Athletic	36	16	11	9	60	35	+25	59
5	Inverness Caledonian Thistle	36	16	9	11	53	37	+16	57
6	Queen of the South	36	14	10	12	59	53	+6	52
7	Greenock Morton	36	13	11	12	47	40	+7	50
8	Falkirk	36	12	11	13	45	49	−4	47
9	Dumbarton (R)	36	7	9	20	27	63	−36	30	Qualification for the Championship play-offs
10	Brechin City (R)	36	0	4	32	20	90	−70	4	Relegation to League One

Source: Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored; 4) Points in head-to-head matches; 5) Goal difference in hth matches; 6). Goals scored in hth matches; 7). Play-off (only for deciding promotion, play-off participation and relegation).^[43]
(C) Champions; (O) Play-off winners; (P) Promoted; (R) Relegated

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 - Promotion to 2018–19 Scottish Premiership
	Qualification to Premiership play-off semi-finals
	Qualification to Premiership play-off quarter-finals
	Qualification to Championship play-offs
	Relegation to 2018–19 Scottish League One

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
St Mirren	2	5	4	3	1	2	2	1	1	1	1	1	2	1	2	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Livingston	5	6	7	6	6	6	4	4	2	3	2	3	3	3	3	4	4	3	3	3	4	4	3	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2
Dundee United	3	1	1	4	4	4	3	2	4	4	4	2	1	2	1	1	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	3	3	4	4	3	3	4	5	4	4	3	3	3
Dunfermline Athletic	4	2	2	1	2	1	1	3	3	2	3	4	4	4	4	5	5	4	4	4	3	3	4	4	5	5	6	5	5	5	4	3	3	4	4	4
Inverness Caledonian Thistle	8	10	10	7	7	8	8	9	9	8	7	7	8	7	8	8	7	7	7	7	7	6	7	7	7	7	8	8	8	8	8	7	6	5	5	5
Queen of the South	1	4	3	2	3	5	6	5	6	5	5	5	5	5	6	3	3	6	6	6	6	5	5	6	6	6	5	6	6	6	6	6	7	7	7	6
Greenock Morton	7	3	5	5	5	3	5	6	5	6	6	6	6	6	5	6	6	5	5	5	5	7	6	5	4	3	3	4	4	3	3	5	5	6	6	7
Falkirk	9	8	9	9	9	9	9	8	8	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	8	8	8	8	7	7	7	7	7	8	8	8	8	8
Dumbarton	6	7	6	8	8	7	7	7	7	7	8	8	7	8	7	7	8	8	8	8	8	8	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9
Brechin City	10	9	8	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10

Source:^{[citation needed]}
Updated: 28 April 2018

Results

Teams play each other four times, twice in the first half of the season (home and away) and twice in the second half of the season (home and away), making a total of 180 games, with each team playing 36.

First half of season

Home \ Away	BRE	DUM	DUN	DNF	FAL	GMO	INV	LIV	QOS	STM
Brechin City	—	0–1	1–1	0–3	1–1	0–1	0–4	2–2	0–1	1–2
Dumbarton	2–1	—	0–2	0–4	0–0	0–0	2–1	1–4	2–2	0–2
Dundee United	1–0	1–1	—	2–1	3–0	2–1	0–2	3–0	2–1	2–1
Dunfermline Athletic	2–1	2–2	1–3	—	3–1	1–1	5–1	3–1	2–5	3–0
Falkirk	3–1	1–1	0–0	1–1	—	0–3	0–0	0–2	1–4	0–0
Greenock Morton	4–1	1–1	0–2	3–2	0–1	—	1–0	0–1	1–2	4–1
Inverness CT	4–0	1–0	0–1	1–0	4–1	1–1	—	1–3	0–0	0–2
Livingston	3–2	2–1	2–0	1–1	0–0	1–1	0–0	—	2–2	1–3
Queen of the South	4–1	1–0	1–3	0–0	4–2	1–2	0–0	0–3	—	2–3
St Mirren	2–1	0–1	3–0	1–0	3–1	2–2	4–2	3–1	3–1	—

Source: Scottish Championship
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Second half of season

Home \ Away	BRE	DUM	DUN	DNF	FAL	GMO	INV	LIV	QOS	STM
Brechin City	—	1–3	0–5	0–3	0–1	1–1	2–3	0–2	1–5	0–1
Dumbarton	1–0	—	3–2	0–1	2–5	0–1	0–1	0–3	0–1	0–2
Dundee United	4–1	2–0	—	1–1	1–0	0–3	1–1	2–0	2–3	1–0
Dunfermline Athletic	4–0	4–0	0–0	—	2–0	0–0	1–0	1–0	3–1	1–2
Falkirk	3–0	0–0	6–1	1–2	—	3–1	3–1	1–3	3–2	1–0
Greenock Morton	2–0	3–2	1–1	2–1	0–1	—	0–3	0–1	0–1	1–1
Inverness CT	4–0	5–1	1–0	2–2	1–0	0–2	—	1–1	3–1	2–2
Livingston	3–0	2–0	2–1	0–0	0–0	3–2	0–1	—	0–1	4–1
Queen of the South	3–1	0–0	3–0	0–0	2–2	1–1	0–2	3–3	—	1–3
St Mirren	1–0	5–0	2–0	2–0	1–2	2–1	1–0	0–0	2–0	—

Source: Scottish Championship
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Season statistics

Scoring

Top scorers

As of matches played on 28 April 2018

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Stephen Dobbie	Queen of the South	18
2	Scott McDonald	Dundee United	15
3	Nicky Clark	Dunfermline Athletic	14
	Lewis Morgan	St Mirren
5	Gavin Reilly	St Mirren	11
6	Kallum Higginbotham	Dunfermline Athletic	10
	Cammy Smith	St Mirren

Source:^[1][44]

Hat-tricks

Player	For	Against	Result	Date	Ref
Stephen Dobbie	Queen of the South	Falkirk	4–1	26 August 2017	[45]
		Dunfermline Athletic	5–2	10 December 2017	[46]
		Brechin City	3–1	27 January 2018	[47]
		Brechin City	5–1	28 April 2018	[48]
Nicky Clark	Dunfermline Athletic	Brechin City	3–0	20 March 2018	[49]
		Queen of the South	3–1	31 March 2018	[50]
Nathan Austin	Inverness Caledonian Thistle	Dumbarton	5–1	14 April 2018	[51]

Discipline

Player

Yellow cards As of matches played on 28 April 2018 Rank Player Club Cards 1 Iain Vigurs Inverness Caledonian Thistle 14 2 Brad McKay Inverness Caledonian Thistle 13 3 James Dale Brechin City 10 Gary Harkins Greenock Morton Source:[44][52]

Red cards As of matches played on 28 April 2018 Rank Player Club Cards 1 Aron Lynas Brechin City 2 Craig Barr Dumbarton Paul McMullan Dundee United Iain Vigurs Inverness Caledonian Thistle 5 28 players 1 Source:[44][52]

Club

Yellow cards As of matches played on 28 April 2018 Rank Club Cards 1 Inverness CT 76 2 Dunfermline Athletic 72 3 Brechin City 69 Source:[53]

Red cards As of matches played on 28 April 2018 Rank Club Cards 1 Inverness CT 7 2 Brechin City 5 Dumbarton Livingston Source:[53]

Attendances

Pos	Team	Total	High	Low	Average	Change
1	Dundee United	99,097	6,936	3,620	5,505	−16.4%†
2	Dunfermline Athletic	94,382	7,585	2,249	5,243	+18.1%†
3	Falkirk	84,175	6,094	3,864	4,676	−7.1%†
4	St Mirren	80,061	6,422	3,023	4,447	+23.6%†
5	Inverness Caledonian Thistle	41,296	3,415	1,801	2,294	−41.9%†
6	Greenock Morton	35,739	4,661	1,134	1,985	−15.9%†
7	Queen of the South	26,232	2,019	1,062	1,457	−21.5%†
8	Livingston	24,268	2,708	732	1,348	+69.3%†
9	Brechin City	16,619	2,627	445	923	+115.7%†
10	Dumbarton	15,085	1,652	392	838	−25.8%†
	League total	518,654	7,585	392	2,881	−35.8%†

Updated to games played on 28 April 2018
Source: ^[2][54]

Awards

Monthly awards

Month	Manager of the Month		Player of the Month		Ref.
	Manager	Club	Player	Club
August	Allan Johnston	Dunfermline Athletic	Joe Cardle	Dunfermline Athletic	[55]
September	David Hopkin	Livingston	Lewis Morgan	St Mirren
October	John Robertson	Inverness CT	Carl Tremarco	Inverness CT
November	Stephen Aitken	Dumbarton	Scott Fraser	Dundee United
December	Jack Ross	St Mirren	Stephen Dobbie	Queen of the South
January	Jack Ross	St Mirren	Stephen McGinn	St Mirren
February	David Hopkin	Livingston	Ryan Hardie	Livingston
March	Jack Ross	St Mirren	Nicky Clark	Dunfermline Athletic

Championship play-offs

The second bottom team will enter into a 4-team playoff with the 2nd-4th placed teams in League One.

Semi-finals

First leg

Arbroath v Dumbarton

2 May 2018	Arbroath	1–2	Dumbarton	Arbroath
19:45	Linn 64'	BBC Report	Gallagher 55' Barr 90'	Stadium: Gayfield Park Attendance: 892 Referee: Nick Walsh

Alloa Athletic v Raith Rovers

2 May 2018	Alloa Athletic	2–0	Raith Rovers	Alloa
19:45	Stewart 22' Flannigan 58'	BBC Report		Stadium: Recreation Park Attendance: 1123 Referee: Don Robertson

Second leg

Dumbarton v Arbroath

5 May 2018	Dumbarton	1–1 (3–2 agg.)	Arbroath	Dumbarton
15:00	Hill 9'	BBC Report	Swankie 27'	Stadium: Dumbarton Football Stadium Attendance: 872 Referee: Craig Charleston

Raith Rovers v Alloa Athletic

5 May 2018	Raith Rovers	1–2 (1–4 agg.)	Alloa Athletic	Kirkcaldy
15:00	Murray 53'	BBC Report	Kirkpatrick 40' Stewart 81'	Stadium: Stark's Park Attendance: 1,831 Referee: Stephen Finnie

Final

First leg

Alloa Athletic v Dumbarton

9 May 2018	Alloa Athletic	0–1	Dumbarton	Alloa
19:45		BBC Report	Carswell 6'	Stadium: Recreation Park Attendance: 811 Referee: John McKendrick

Second leg

Dumbarton v Alloa Athletic

13 May 2018	Dumbarton	0–2 (a.e.t.) (1–2 agg.)	Alloa Athletic	Dumbarton
16:10		BBC Report	Stewart 90+3' Kirkpatrick 95'	Stadium: Dumbarton Football Stadium Attendance: 1,115 Referee: John Beaton