2017–18 Scottish Premiership

The 2017–18 Scottish Premiership (known as the Ladbrokes Premiership for sponsorship reasons) was the fifth season of the Scottish Premiership, the highest division of Scottish football. The fixtures were published on 23 June 2017.^[4] The season began on 5 August 2017.^[5] Celtic were the defending champions.

Scottish Premiership

Season	2017–18
Dates	5 August 2017 – 13 May 2018
Champions	Celtic 5th Premiership title 49th Scottish title
Relegated	Partick Thistle Ross County
Champions League	Celtic
Europa League	Aberdeen Rangers Hibernian
Matches	228
Goals	594 (2.61 per match)
Top goalscorer	Kris Boyd (18 goals)[1][2]
Biggest home win	Celtic 5–0 Rangers[3] (29 April 2018)
Biggest away win	St Johnstone 0–4 Celtic[3] (4 November 2017) Dundee 0–4 St Johnstone[3] (10 March 2018) Motherwell 1–5 St Johnstone[3] (5 May 2018)
Highest scoring	Hibernian 5–5 Rangers[3] (13 May 2018)
Longest winning run	6 matches:[3] Kilmarnock
Longest unbeaten run	17 matches:[3] Celtic
Longest winless run	12 matches:[3] Ross County
Longest losing run	6 matches:[3] Hamilton Academical
Highest attendance	59,259[3] Celtic 2–2 Hibernian (30 September 2017)
Lowest attendance	1,272[3] Hamilton Academical 3–2 Ross County (16 December 2017)
Total attendance	3,632,642[3]
Average attendance	15,932 (1,963)[3]
← 2016–17 2018–19 → All statistics correct as of 13 May 2018.

Twelve teams contested the league: Aberdeen, Celtic, Dundee, Hamilton Academical, Heart of Midlothian, Hibernian, Kilmarnock, Motherwell, Partick Thistle, Rangers, Ross County and St Johnstone.

The season's average attendance was 15,932, the highest level since 2006–07.^[3]

On 29 April 2018, Celtic won their seventh consecutive title and 49th overall after a 5–0 win at home to Rangers.^[6]

Teams

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

To Premiership Promoted from Scottish Championship Hibernian

From Premiership Relegated to Scottish Championship Inverness Caledonian Thistle

Stadia and locations

Aberdeen	Celtic	Dundee	Hamilton Academical
Pittodrie Stadium	Celtic Park	Dens Park	New Douglas Park
Capacity: 20,866[7]	Capacity: 60,411[8]	Capacity: 11,506[9]	Capacity: 5,510[10]
Heart of Midlothian	Aberdeen Dundee Hearts Hibernian Kilmarnock Rangers Ross County St. Johnstone Celtic Hamilton Motherwell Partick Thistle Location of teams in 2017–18 Scottish Premiership		Hibernian
Tynecastle Park[11]			Easter Road
Capacity: 20,099[12]			Capacity: 20,421[13]
Kilmarnock			Motherwell
Rugby Park			Fir Park
Capacity: 17,889[14]			Capacity: 13,677[15]
Partick Thistle	Rangers	Ross County	St Johnstone
Firhill Stadium	Ibrox Stadium	Victoria Park	McDiarmid Park
Capacity: 10,102[16]	Capacity: 50,817[17]	Capacity: 6,541[18]	Capacity: 10,696[19]

Personnel and kits

Team	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
Aberdeen	Derek McInnes	Graeme Shinnie	Adidas	Saltire Energy
Celtic	Brendan Rodgers	Scott Brown	New Balance	Dafabet
Dundee	Neil McCann	Darren O'Dea	Puma	McEwan Fraser Legal
Hamilton Academical	Martin Canning	Dougie Imrie	Adidas	SuperSeal (H), NetBet (A)
Heart of Midlothian	Craig Levein	Christophe Berra	Umbro	Save the Children
Hibernian	Neil Lennon	David Gray	Macron	Marathonbet
Kilmarnock	Steve Clarke	Steven Smith	Nike	QTS
Motherwell	Steve Robinson	Carl McHugh	Macron	McEwan Fraser Legal
Partick Thistle	Alan Archibald	Abdul Osman	Joma	Just Employment Law
Rangers	Jimmy Nicholl (interim)	Lee Wallace	Puma	32Red
Ross County	Steven Ferguson and Stuart Kettlewell	Andrew Davies	Macron	Stanley CRC Evans Offshore
St Johnstone	Tommy Wright	Steven Anderson	Joma	Alan Storrar Cars

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Dundee	Neil McCann	End of interim	20 May 2017[20]	Pre-season	Neil McCann	1 June 2017[21]
Kilmarnock	Lee McCulloch		20 May 2017[22]		Lee McCulloch	5 June 2017[23]
Heart of Midlothian	Ian Cathro	Sacked	1 August 2017[24]		Craig Levein	28 August 2017[25]
Ross County	Jim McIntyre		25 September 2017[26]	10th	Owen Coyle	28 September 2017[27]
Kilmarnock	Lee McCulloch	Resigned	1 October 2017[28]	12th	Steve Clarke	14 October 2017[29]
Rangers	Pedro Caixinha	Sacked	26 October 2017[30]	4th	Graeme Murty (interim)	26 October 2017[30]
Rangers	Graeme Murty	End of interim	22 December 2017[31]	3rd	Graeme Murty	22 December 2017[31]
Ross County	Owen Coyle	Resigned	1 March 2018[32]	12th	Steven Ferguson and Stuart Kettlewell	2 March 2018[33]
Rangers	Graeme Murty	Sacked	1 May 2018[34]	3rd	Jimmy Nicholl (interim)	1 May 2018[34]

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.

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 Premiership winners would receive £3.176 million, with a total pot of £24.5m to be distributed across the four divisions.^[35]

League summary

League table

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation[a]
1	Celtic (C)	38	24	10	4	73	25	+48	82	Qualification for the Champions League first qualifying round[b]
2	Aberdeen	38	22	7	9	56	37	+19	73	Qualification for the Europa League second qualifying round
3	Rangers	38	21	7	10	76	50	+26	70	Qualification for the Europa League first qualifying round
4	Hibernian	38	18	13	7	62	46	+16	67
5	Kilmarnock	38	16	11	11	49	47	+2	59
6	Heart of Midlothian	38	12	13	13	39	39	0	49
7	Motherwell	38	13	9	16	43	49	−6	48
8	St Johnstone	38	12	10	16	42	53	−11	46
9	Dundee	38	11	6	21	36	57	−21	39
10	Hamilton Academical	38	9	6	23	47	68	−21	33
11	Partick Thistle (R)	38	8	9	21	31	61	−30	33	Qualification for the Premiership play-off final
12	Ross County (R)	38	6	11	21	40	62	−22	29	Relegation to the Championship

Source: Soccerway BBC
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored; 4) Play-off (only if deciding champion, UEFA competitions qualification and second-stage group allocation).^[36]
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. Teams play each other three times (33 matches) before the league is split into two groups (the top six and the bottom six).
2. Since the winners of the 2017–18 Scottish Cup, Celtic, qualified for European competition based on league position, the spot awarded to the Scottish Cup winners (Europa League second qualifying round) was passed to the second-placed team and the spot awarded to the second-placed team (Europa League first qualifying round) was passed to the fourth-placed team.

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 to Champions League first qualifying round
	Qualification to Europa League first qualifying round
	Qualification to Premiership play-off final
	Relegation to 2018–19 Scottish 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	1	2	1	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Aberdeen	3	4	3	1	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	3	3	3	2	2	2	2	3	3	2	2	3	3	3	3	3	2	3	3	2	2	2	2
Rangers	4	6	6	5	4	3	5	3	3	3	4	4	4	4	3	2	2	2	3	3	3	3	2	2	3	3	2	2	2	2	2	3	2	2	3	3	3	3
Hibernian	2	3	5	6	6	6	4	6	6	7	5	3	3	3	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4
Kilmarnock	8	9	10	10	11	12	12	12	11	11	11	11	10	10	10	10	8	8	8	6	7	6	7	7	7	7	6	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5
Heart of Midlothian	12	8	7	8	8	7	7	7	7	5	7	7	6	7	7	6	6	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6
Motherwell	9	11	8	7	5	5	6	5	4	4	3	5	5	5	5	5	5	6	7	8	8	8	6	6	6	6	7	7	7	7	8	7	7	7	7	7	7	7
St Johnstone	6	1	2	3	3	4	3	4	5	6	6	6	7	6	6	7	7	7	6	7	6	7	8	8	8	8	9	8	8	8	7	8	8	8	8	8	8	8
Dundee	7	12	12	11	12	9	9	8	8	9	10	12	12	12	11	9	10	11	10	10	10	10	10	9	9	9	8	9	10	10	10	10	10	9	10	9	9	9
Hamilton Academical	11	5	4	4	7	8	8	9	9	10	9	8	9	8	8	8	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	10	10	11	11	10	9	9	9	9	9	10	9	10	10	10
Partick Thistle	10	10	11	12	10	11	11	11	12	12	12	10	11	11	12	12	12	12	12	11	12	11	11	11	11	10	10	11	11	11	11	12	12	11	11	11	11	11
Ross County	5	7	9	9	9	10	10	10	10	8	8	9	8	9	9	11	11	10	11	12	11	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	11	11	12	12	12	12	12

Source: BBC Sport

Results

Matches 1–22

Teams play each other twice, once at home and once away.

Home \ Away	ABE	CEL	DND	HAM	HOM	HIB	KIL	MOT	PAR	RAN	ROS	STJ
Aberdeen	—	0–3	2–1	2–0	0–0	4–1	1–1	0–2	1–0	1–2	2–1	3–0
Celtic	3–0	—	1–0	3–1	4–1	2–2	1–1	5–1	2–0	0–0	4–0	1–1
Dundee	0–1	0–2	—	1–3	2–1	1–1	0–0	0–1	3–0	2–1	1–2	3–2
Hamilton Academical	2–2	1–4	3–0	—	1–2	1–1	1–2	1–2	0–0	1–4	3–2	0–1
Heart of Midlothian	0–0	4–0	2–0	1–1	—	0–0	1–2	1–0	1–1	1–3	0–0	1–0
Hibernian	0–1	2–2	2–1	1–3	1–0	—	1–1	2–2	3–1	1–2	2–1	1–2
Kilmarnock	1–3	0–2	1–1	2–2	0–1	0–3	—	1–0	5–1	2–1	0–2	1–2
Motherwell	0–1	1–1	1–1	1–3	2–1	0–1	2–0	—	3–0	1–2	2–0	2–0
Partick Thistle	3–4	0–1	2–1	1–0	1–1	0–1	0–2	3–2	—	2–2	2–0	1–0
Rangers	3–0	0–2	4–1	0–2	0–0	2–3	1–1	2–0	3–0	—	2–1	1–3
Ross County	1–2	0–1	0–2	2–1	1–2	0–1	2–2	3–2	1–1	1–3	—	1–1
St Johnstone	0–3	0–4	0–2	2–1	0–0	1–1	1–2	4–1	1–0	0–3	0–0	—

Source: Scottish Premiership
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
For upcoming matches, an "a" indicates there is an article about the rivalry between the two participants.

Matches 23–33

Teams play every other team once (either at home or away).

Home \ Away	ABE	CEL	DND	HAM	HOM	HIB	KIL	MOT	PAR	RAN	ROS	STJ
Aberdeen	—	0–2	1–0	3–0	—	—	3–1	—	—	—	—	4–1
Celtic	—	—	0–0	—	3–1	1–0	—	—	—	—	3–0	0–0
Dundee	—	—	—	—	1–1	0–1	—	0–1	—	—	1–4	0–4
Hamilton Academical	—	1–2	1–2	—	0–3	—	—	2–0	2–1	3–5	—	—
Heart of Midlothian	2–0	—	—	—	—	—	1–1	1–1	3–0	—	—	1–0
Hibernian	2–0	—	—	3–1	2–0	—	—	2–1	2–0	—	—	—
Kilmarnock	—	1–0	3–2	2–0	—	2–2	—	—	—	—	3–2	2–0
Motherwell	0–2	0–0	—	—	—	—	0–1	—	1–1	2–2	2–0	—
Partick Thistle	0–0	1–2	1–2	—	—	—	0–1	—	—	0–2	—	—
Rangers	2–0	2–3	4–0	—	2–0	1–2	0–1	—	—	—	—	—
Ross County	2–4	—	—	2–2	1–1	1–1	—	—	4–0	1–2	—	—
St Johnstone	—	—	—	1–0	—	1–1	—	0–0	1–3	1–4	2–0	—

Source: Scottish Premiership
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
For upcoming matches, an "a" indicates there is an article about the rivalry between the two participants.

Matches 34–38

After 33 matches, the league splits into two sections of six teams i.e. the top six and the bottom six, with the teams playing every other team in their section once (either at home or away). The exact matches are determined by the position of the teams in the league table at the time of the split.^[37]

Top six Home \ Away ABE CEL HOM HIB KIL RAN Aberdeen — — 2–0 0–0 — 1–1 Celtic 0–1 — — — 0–0 5–0 Heart of Midlothian — 1–3 — 2–1 — — Hibernian — 2–1 — — 5–3 5–5 Kilmarnock 0–2 — 1–0 — — — Rangers — — 2–1 — 1–0 — Source: Scottish Premiership Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win. For upcoming matches, an "a" indicates there is an article about the rivalry between the two participants.

Bottom six Home \ Away DND HAM MOT PAR ROS STJ Dundee — 1–0 — 0–1 — 2–1 Hamilton Academical — — — — 2–0 1–2 Motherwell 2–1 3–0 — — — 1–5 Partick Thistle — 2–1 0–1 — 1–1 — Ross County 0–1 — 0–0 — — — St Johnstone — — — 1–1 1–1 — Source: Scottish Premiership Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win. For upcoming matches, an "a" indicates there is an article about the rivalry between the two participants.

Season statistics

Top scorers

As of matches played on 13 May 2018

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Kris Boyd	Kilmarnock	18
2	Alfredo Morelos	Rangers	14
3	Josh Windass	Rangers	13
4	Kyle Lafferty	Heart of Midlothian	12
5	Alex Schalk	Ross County	11
6	Scott Sinclair	Celtic	10

Source:^[1][2][38]

Hat-tricks

Player	For	Against	Result	Date	Reference
Adam Rooney	Aberdeen	St Johnstone	3–0	30 September 2017	[39]
Odsonne Édouard	Celtic	Motherwell	5–1	2 December 2017	[40]
Gary Mackay-Steven	Aberdeen	Hibernian	4–1	16 December 2017	[41]
Josh Windass	Rangers	Hamilton Academical	5–3	18 February 2018	[42]
Florian Kamberi	Hibernian	Hamilton Academical	3–1	3 April 2018	[43]
Alex Schalk	Ross County	Partick Thistle	4–0	3 April 2018	[44]
Steven MacLean	St Johnstone	Motherwell	5–1	5 May 2018	[45]
Jamie Maclaren	Hibernian	Rangers	5–5	13 May 2018	[46]

Discipline

Player

Yellow cards As of matches played on 13 May 2018 Rank Player Club Cards 1 Graeme Shinnie Aberdeen 15 John McGinn Hibernian 3 Murray Davidson St Johnstone 14 4 Kyle Lafferty Heart of Midlothian 12 Carl McHugh Motherwell 6 John Souttar Heart of Midlothian 10 Source:[38][47]

Red cards As of matches played on 13 May 2018 Rank Player Club Cards 1 Ryan Jack Rangers 4 2 Darren O'Dea Dundee 2 3 38 players 1 Source:[38][47]

Club

Yellow cards As of matches played on 13 May 2018 Rank Club Cards 1 Heart of Midlothian 86 2 Hamilton Academical 82 3 Rangers 81 Source:[48]

Red cards As of matches played on 13 May 2018 Rank Club Cards 1 Hamilton Academical 9 2 Heart of Midlothian 5 Motherwell Rangers 5 St Johnstone 4 Source:[48]

Attendances

These are the average attendances of the teams.

Pos	Team	Total	High	Low	Average	Change
1	Celtic	1,096,356	59,259	53,883	57,702	+5.6%†
2	Rangers	934,298	50,215	47,272	49,173	+0.6%†
3	Heart of Midlothian	331,725	32,852	15,357	18,429	+12.9%†
4	Hibernian	344,355	20,193	15,459	18,123	+17.7%†
5	Aberdeen	299,734	20,528	13,531	15,775	+24.8%†
6	Dundee	113,000	9,193	4,863	5,947	−7.5%†
7	Motherwell	108,969	9,974	3,196	5,448	+21.5%†
8	Kilmarnock	102,424	11,490	3,337	5,390	+8.6%†
9	Ross County	86,260	6,590	3,021	4,540	+10.7%†
10	Partick Thistle	84,393	8,264	2,452	4,441	+3.7%†
11	St Johnstone	72,371	6,887	2,037	3,809	−13.3%†
12	Hamilton Academical	58,807	5,406	1,272	3,095	+22.3%†
	League total	3,632,642	59,259	1,272	15,932	+14.1%†

Updated to games played on 13 May 2018
Source: ^{[49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60]}

Awards

Month	Manager of the Month		Player of the Month		Ref.
	Manager	Club	Player	Club
August	Tommy Wright	St Johnstone	Michael O'Halloran	St Johnstone	[61]
September	Brendan Rodgers	Celtic	Louis Moult	Motherwell
October	Neil Lennon	Hibernian	Kieran Tierney	Celtic
November	Martin Canning	Hamilton Academical	David Templeton	Hamilton Academical
December	Steve Clarke	Kilmarnock	Kris Boyd	Kilmarnock
January	No awards due to winter break
February	Steve Clarke	Kilmarnock	Josh Windass	Rangers
March	Steve Clarke	Kilmarnock	Stephen O'Donnell	Kilmarnock

Premiership play-offs

The quarter-final was contested between the third and fourth-placed teams (Dundee United and Dunfermline Athletic) in the Scottish Championship, with the winners advancing to the semi-final to face the second-placed Championship side (Livingston). The last remaining Championship team played off against the eleventh-placed Premiership team in the final, with the winners securing the last place in the 2018–19 Scottish Premiership.

	Quarter-final							Semi-final							Final
															1	Partick Thistle	1	0	1
								2	Livingston	3	1	4			2	Livingston	2	1	3
	3	Dundee United	0	2	2			3	Dundee United	2	1	3
	4	Dunfermline Athletic	0	1	1

Quarter-final

First leg

Dunfermline Athletic v Dundee United

1 May 2018	Dunfermline Athletic	0–0	Dundee United	Dunfermline
19:45		BBC Report		Stadium: East End Park Attendance: 6,474 Referee: Bobby Madden

Second leg

Dundee United v Dunfermline Athletic

4 May 2018	Dundee United	2–1 (2–1 agg.)	Dunfermline Athletic	Dundee
19:45	McDonald 57' Stanton 70'	BBC Report	McManus 14'	Stadium: Tannadice Park Attendance: 7,994 Referee: Willie Collum

Semi-final

First leg

Dundee United v Livingston

7 May 2018	Dundee United	2–3	Livingston	Dundee
19:45	Mikkelsen 3' Ralston 28'	BBC Report	De Vita 2' Mullin 77' Pittman 80'	Stadium: Tannadice Park Attendance: 5,610 Referee: Nick Walsh

Second leg

Livingston v Dundee United

11 May 2018	Livingston	1–1 (4–3 agg.)	Dundee United	Livingston
19:45	Lithgow 6'	BBC Report[dead link]	Fraser 21'	Stadium: Almondvale Stadium Attendance: 4,508 Referee: Don Robertson

Final

First leg

Livingston v Partick Thistle

17 May 2018	Livingston	2–1	Partick Thistle	Livingston
19:45	Jacobs 13' Pittman 74'	BBC Report	Doolan 10'	Stadium: Almondvale Stadium Attendance: 5,469 Referee: Craig Thomson

Second leg

Partick Thistle v Livingston

20 May 2018	Partick Thistle	0–1 (1–3 agg.)	Livingston	Glasgow
15:30		Report	Jacobs 46'	Stadium: Firhill Stadium Attendance: 7,122 Referee: John Beaton

Livingston were promoted to the Premiership.

Broadcasting

Live Matches

The SPFL permitted Sky Sports and BT Sport to show up to six live home matches between the broadcasters from each club - although this was only four for Rangers and Celtic. Sky Sports and BT Sport's deals allowed them to broadcast 30 games each (and the play-offs for BT). The deal roughly provided £21m to SPFL per season.^[62]

Highlights

Sky Sports held the rights to Saturday night highlights - however, they did not broadcast a dedicated programme and instead merely showed the goals of the Premiership matches on Sky Sports News in their Goals Express programme primarily focused on goals from the English Football League. Gaelic-language channel BBC Alba had the rights to broadcast the repeat in full of 38 Saturday 3pm matches "as live" at 5.30pm. The main Premiership highlights programme was BBC Scotland's Sportscene programme, hosted on Sundays, which showed in depth highlights of all six Premiership matches every weekend. STV showed the goals from the weekend matches 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 uploaded 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.

See also

• Nine in a row