2010–11 Scottish Premier League

The 2010–11 Scottish Premier League was the thirteenth season of the Scottish Premier League, the highest division of Scottish football. It commenced on 14 August 2010 and ended on 15 May 2011. The defending champions were Rangers who retained their championship with a 5–1 win at Kilmarnock on the final day of the season.^[1]

Scottish Premier League

Season	2010–11
Dates	14 August 2010 – 15 May 2011
Champions	Rangers 7th Premier League title 54th Scottish title
Relegated	Hamilton Academical
Champions League	Rangers
Europa League	Celtic Heart of Midlothian Dundee United
Matches played	228
Goals scored	584 (2.56 per match)
Top goalscorer	Kenny Miller (21)
Biggest home win	Celtic 9–0 Aberdeen (6 November 2010)
Biggest away win	Motherwell 0-5 Rangers
Highest scoring	Celtic 9–0 Aberdeen (6 November 2010)
Longest winning run	9 games
Longest unbeaten run	14 games Celtic
Longest winless run	22 games Hamilton Academical
Longest losing run	7 games Aberdeen
Highest attendance	58,874 Celtic
Lowest attendance	2,019 Hamilton Academical v Inverness Caledonian Thistle (13 November 2010)
Average attendance	13,677
← 2009–10 2011–12 →

Teams

Aberdeen

Dundee Utd

Hamilton

Hearts

Hibernian

Inverness

Kilmarnock

Celtic

Motherwell

Rangers

St Johnstone

St Mirren

Location of teams in 2010-11 Scottish Premier League season

Twelve teams participated in the 2010–11 season, eleven of which competed in the 2009–10 season. Inverness Caledonian Thistle was promoted from the 2009–10 First Division.

Team changes

Promoted from First Division to Premier League

• Inverness Caledonian Thistle

Relegated from Premier League to First Division

• Falkirk

Kits and shirt sponsors

Team	Kit manufacturer	Kit sponsor	Notes
Aberdeen	Nike	Team Recruitment	New home and away kits
Celtic	Nike	Tennent's Lager	Tennent's replaced Carling as shirt sponsors New home and away kits
Dundee United	Nike	Calor Gas	Calor Gas replaced Cabrini as shirt sponsors
Hamilton Academical	Nike	Reid Furniture
Heart of Midlothian	Umbro	Ūkio bankas	New home and away kits
Hibernian	Puma	McEwan Fraser	Puma replaced Le Coq Sportif as kit manufacturer New home and away kits
Inverness CT	Errea	Orion Group	New home and away kits
Kilmarnock	1869	Verve.net	New home and away kits
Motherwell	Puma[2]	Commsworld	Puma replaced Canterbury as kit manufacturer New home and away kits
Rangers	Umbro	Tennent's Lager	Tennent's replaced Carling as shirt sponsors New home, away and third kits
St Johnstone	Joma	Taylor Wimpey	Joma replaced Surridge as kit manufacturer New home and away kits
St Mirren	Hummel	Braehead Shopping Centre	New home and away kits

Stadiums and Attendees

As of 15:08, 7 April 2012 (UTC)^[3]

Team	Stadium	Capacity	Total	Highest	Lowest	Average
Aberdeen	Pittodrie Stadium	22,199	173,460	15,307	5,955	9,129
Celtic	Celtic Park	60,355	930,395	58,874	40,750	48,968
Dundee United	Tannadice Park	14,209	140,391	11,790	4,918	7,389
Hamilton Academical	New Douglas Park	6,096	55,056	5,356	2,011	2,898
Heart of Midlothian	Tynecastle Stadium	17,420	269,506	17,420	12,009	14,185
Hibernian	Easter Road[note 1]	020,250	223,360	17,793	7,238	11,756
Inverness CT	Caledonian Stadium	7,500	85,998	7,547	3,241	4,526
Kilmarnock	Rugby Park	18,128	122,106	16,173	4,214	6,427
Motherwell	Fir Park	13,742	99,838	9,716	3,324	5,255
Rangers	Ibrox Stadium	51,082	860,793	50,248	41,514	45,305
St Johnstone	McDiarmid Park	10,673	72,982	6,866	2,253	3,841
St Mirren	St Mirren Park	8,016	84,545	6,118	2,701	4,450

Events

• 6 November – Celtic set a new SPL record for margin of victory in a single match with a 9–0 win against Aberdeen.^[4]
• 10 November – Edinburgh derby rivals Hearts and Hibs beat the Old Firm of Celtic and Rangers on the same day.^[5] Hearts beat Celtic 2–0 at Tynecastle, while Hibs produced a 3–0 win against Rangers at Ibrox.^[5] The Scotsman newspaper reported that this last happened in April 1972.^[5]

Referee strike

Main article: Scottish football referee strike

• 21 November – Scottish football referees vote to take strike action, threatening the fixtures scheduled for the weekend of 27 and 28 November.^[6] The Scottish Football Association sourced referees from other UEFA associations to cover the SPL matches,^[7] but all ten Scottish Football League matches were postponed due to the strike.^[8]

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Rangers (C)	38	30	3	5	88	29	+59	93	Qualification for the Champions League third qualifying round
2	Celtic	38	29	5	4	85	22	+63	92	Qualification for the Europa League play-off round[a]
3	Heart of Midlothian	38	18	9	11	53	45	+8	63	Qualification for the Europa League third qualifying round
4	Dundee United	38	17	10	11	55	50	+5	61	Qualification for the Europa League second qualifying round[a]
5	Kilmarnock	38	13	10	15	53	55	−2	49
6	Motherwell	38	13	7	18	40	60	−20	46
7	Inverness Caledonian Thistle	38	14	11	13	52	44	+8	53
8	St Johnstone	38	11	11	16	23	43	−20	44
9	Aberdeen	38	11	5	22	39	59	−20	38
10	Hibernian	38	10	7	21	39	61	−22	37
11	St Mirren	38	8	9	21	33	57	−24	33
12	Hamilton Academical (R)	38	5	11	22	24	59	−35	26	Relegation to the First Division

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

1. Celtic entered the play-off round of the 2011–12 UEFA Europa League as they won the 2011 Scottish Cup Final. Due to this, Heart of Midlothian also moved up to the third qualifying round, whilst fourth-placed team Dundee United received the second qualifying round spot.

Results

Matches 1–22

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

Home \ Away	ABE	CEL	DUN	HAM	HOM	HIB	INV	KIL	MOT	RAN	STJ	STM
Aberdeen		0–3	1–1	4–0	0–1	4–2	1–2	0–1	1–2	2–3	0–1	2–0
Celtic	9–0		1–1	3–1	3–0	2–1	2–2	1–1	1–0	1–3	2–0	4–0
Dundee United	3–1	1–2		2–1	2–0	1–0	0–4	1–1	2–0	0–4	1–0	1–2
Hamilton Academical	0–1	1–1	0–1		0–4	1–2	1–3	2–2	0–0	1–2	1–2	0–0
Heart of Midlothian	5–0	2–0	1–1	2–0		1–0	1–1	0–3	0–2	1–2	1–1	3–0
Hibernian	1–2	0–3	2–2	1–1	0–2		1–1	2–1	2–1	0–3	0–0	2–0
Inverness Caledonian Thistle	2–0	0–1	0–2	0–1	1–3	4–2		1–3	1–2	1–1	1–1	1–2
Kilmarnock	2–0	1–2	1–2	3–0	1–2	2–1	1–2		0–1	2–3	1–1	2–1
Motherwell	1–1	0–1	2–1	0–1	1–2	2–3	0–0	0–1		1–4	4–0	3–1
Rangers	2–0	0–2	4–0	4–0	1–0	0–3	1–1	2–1	4–1		2–1	2–1
St Johnstone	0–1	0–3	0–0	2–0	0–2	2–0	1–0	0–3	0–2	0–2		2–1
St Mirren	2–1	0–1	1–1	2–2	0–2	1–0	1–2	0–2	1–1	1–3	1–2

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

Matches 23–33

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

Home \ Away	ABE	CEL	DUN	HAM	HOM	HIB	INV	KIL	MOT	RAN	STJ	STM
Aberdeen				1–0	0–0	0–1		5–0		0–1
Celtic	1–0			2–0	4–0	3–1				3–0		1–0
Dundee United	3–1	1–3				3–0	1–0				2–0
Hamilton Academical			1–1		0–2			1–1		0–1	0–0
Heart of Midlothian			2–1					0–2	0–0	1–0	1–0	3–2
Hibernian				1–2	2–2		2–0	2–1		0–2
Inverness Caledonian Thistle	0–2	3–2		1–1	1–1				3–0		2–0
Kilmarnock		0–4	1–1				1–1		3–1			2–0
Motherwell	2–1	2–0	2–1	1–0		2–0						0–1
Rangers			2–3				1–0	2–1	6–0		4–0
St Johnstone	0–0	0–1				1–1		0–0	1–0			0–0
St Mirren	3–2		1–1	3–1		0–1	3–3			0–1

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

Matches 34–38

After 33 matches, the league split into two sections of six teams each, with teams playing every other team in their section once (either at home or away). The exact matches were determined upon the league table at the time of the split.

Top six Home \ Away CEL DUN HOM KIL MOT RAN Celtic 4–1 4–0 Dundee United 2–1 4–2 4–0 Heart of Midlothian 0–3 3–3 Kilmarnock 0–2 2–2 1–5 Motherwell 1–1 0–5 Rangers 0–0 2–0 4–0 Source: BBC Sport Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Bottom six Home \ Away ABE HAM HIB INV STJ STM Aberdeen 1–0 0–2 0–1 Hamilton Academical 1–1 1–0 1–2 Hibernian 1–3 1–2 1–1 Inverness Caledonian Thistle 2–0 1–0 St Johnstone 1–0 0–3 St Mirren 0–1 0–0 Source: BBC Sport Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Statistics

Top scorers

As of 18:01, 15 May 2011 (UTC)^[9]

Rank	Scorer	Team	Goals
1	Kenny Miller[note 2]	Rangers	21
2	Gary Hooper	Celtic	20
3	David Goodwillie	Dundee United	17
4	Nikica Jelavić	Rangers	16
5	Adam Rooney	Inverness CT	15
	Conor Sammon[note 3]	Kilmarnock
	Anthony Stokes[note 4]	Celtic
8	Michael Higdon	St Mirren	14
9	Rudolf Skácel	Heart of Midlothian	13
10	Nick Blackman[note 5]	Aberdeen	12

Hat-tricks

Main article: List of Scottish Premier League hat-tricks

Scorer	For	Against	Date
Paul Hartley	Aberdeen	Hamilton Academical	14 August 2010[10]
Kenny Miller	Rangers	Hibernian	22 August 2010[11]
Rudi Skacel	Heart of Midlothian	St Mirren	23 October 2010[12]
Anthony Stokes	Celtic	Aberdeen	6 November 2010[13]
Gary Hooper	Celtic	Aberdeen	6 November 2010[13]
Nick Blackman	Motherwell	St Johnstone	10 November 2010[14]
Kenny Miller	Rangers	Kilmarnock	20 November 2010[15]
Adam Rooney	Inverness CT	Hibernian	20 November 2010[16]
Nikica Jelavić	Rangers	Motherwell	12 February 2011[17]
Michael Higdon	St Mirren	Hamilton Academical	2 April 2011[18]
Jon Daly	Dundee United	Motherwell	7 May 2011[19]
Kyle Lafferty	Rangers	Kilmarnock	15 May 2011[20]

Awards

Monthly awards

Main article: List of Scottish Premier League monthly award winners

Month	Manager of the Month		Player of the Month		Young Player of the Month
	Manager	Club	Player	Club	Player	Club
August	Walter Smith[21]	Rangers	Kenny Miller[21]	Rangers	James Forrest[22]	Celtic
September	Neil Lennon[23]	Celtic	Kenny Miller[24]	Rangers	Chris Maguire[25]	Aberdeen
October	Terry Butcher[26]	Inverness CT	Steven Naismith[27]	Rangers	Ki Sung-yueng[28]	Celtic
November	Jim Jefferies[29]	Heart of Midlothian	Alexei Eremenko[30]	Kilmarnock	David Templeton[31]	Heart of Midlothian
December	Mixu Paatelainen[32]	Kilmarnock	Marius Žaliūkas[33]	Heart of Midlothian	David Templeton[33]	Heart of Midlothian
January	Neil Lennon[34]	Celtic	Beram Kayal[35]	Celtic	Jamie Ness[36]	Rangers
February	Colin Calderwood[37]	Hibernian	Marián Kello[38]	Heart of Midlothian	Callum Booth[37]	Hibernian
March	Peter Houston[39]	Dundee United	David Goodwillie[39]	Dundee United	Johnny Russell[39]	Dundee United
April	Neil Lennon[40]	Celtic	Allan McGregor[41]	Rangers	Jamie Murphy[42]	Motherwell

Clydesdale Bank Premier League Awards

Award	Recipient
Player of the Season	Emilio Izaguirre[43]
Manager of the Season	Mixu Paatelainen[43]
Young Player of the Season	David Goodwillie[43]
Goal of the Season	Derek Riordan[43]
Save of the Season	Marian Kello[43]
Under-19 League Player of the Season	Jason Holt[43]
Best Club Media Relations	Motherwell[43]
SPL Family Champions	Rangers[43]
Best Community Initiative	St Mirren[43]

Notes

1. The capacity of Easter Road was increased during the 2010 close season as Hibernian opened a new East Stand
2. Miller left Rangers to sign for Turkish club Bursaspor in January 2011
3. Sammon left Kilmarnock to sign for English club Wigan Athletic in January 2011
4. Stokes scored 1 goal for Hibernian
5. Blackman scored 10 goals for Motherwell