2014–15 Scottish Premiership

The 2014–15 Scottish Premiership was the second season of the Scottish Premiership, the highest division of Scottish football. The season began on 9 August 2014^[2] and ended on the 31 May 2015. Celtic are the defending champions.

Twelve teams contested the league: Aberdeen, Celtic, Dundee, Dundee United, Hamilton Academical, Inverness CT, Kilmarnock, Motherwell, Partick Thistle, Ross County, St Johnstone and St Mirren. Due to the relegation of Edinburgh-based teams Heart of Midlothian and Hibernian in 2014, this season marked the first time in football history in which Scotland's capital city had no representatives in the top league.

On 2 May, Celtic clinched their fourth title in a row after Aberdeen lost 1–0 away at Dundee United, leaving Celtic 11 points clear with three games to play.^[3][4]

Teams

Dundee were promoted from the Scottish Championship. Heart of Midlothian were relegated from the Scottish Premiership.

Hibernian finished in the play-off position in the Scottish Premiership. They lost to Hamilton Academical who took the final place in the second edition of the competition, a result which left the Scottish capital Edinburgh without a club in the top flight of Scottish football for the 2014–15 season.

Stadiums by capacity and locations

Aberdeen	Celtic	Dundee	Dundee United
Pittodrie Stadium, Aberdeen	Celtic Park, Glasgow	Dens Park, Dundee	Tannadice Park, Dundee
Capacity: 20,897[5]	Capacity: 60,355[6]	Capacity: 11,506[7]	Capacity: 14,229[8]
Hamilton Academical	Aberdeen Dundee Utd Dundee Inverness Caledonian Thistle Kilmarnock Ross County St. Johnstone St Mirren Celtic Hamilton Motherwell Partick Thistle Location of teams in 2014–15 Scottish Premiership		Inverness Caledonian Thistle
New Douglas Park, Hamilton			Caledonian Stadium, Inverness
Capacity: 6,078[9]			Capacity: 7,800[10]
Kilmarnock			Motherwell
Rugby Park, Kilmarnock			Fir Park, Motherwell
Capacity: 18,128[11]			Capacity: 13,677[12]
Partick Thistle	Ross County	St Johnstone	St Mirren
Firhill Stadium, Glasgow	Victoria Park, Dingwall	McDiarmid Park, Perth	St Mirren Park, Paisley
Capacity: 10,102[13]	Capacity: 6,541[14]	Capacity: 10,696[15]	Capacity: 8,023[16]

Personnel and kits

Team	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
Aberdeen	McInnes, DerekDerek McInnes	Anderson, RussellRussell Anderson	Adidas	Saltire Energy
Celtic	Deila, RonnyRonny Deila	Brown, ScottScott Brown	Nike	Magners
Dundee	Hartley, PaulPaul Hartley	Thomson, KevinKevin Thomson	Puma	Hangar Records
Dundee United	McNamara, JackieJackie McNamara	Dillon, SeánSeán Dillon	Nike	Calor
Hamilton Academical	Canning, MartinMartin Canning	Canning, MartinMartin Canning	1874 Accies, Nike	M&H Logistics (H), Life Skills Centres (A)
Inverness CT	Hughes, JohnJohn Hughes	Foran, RichieRichie Foran	Erreà	Subway
Kilmarnock	Locke, GaryGary Locke	Pascali, ManuelManuel Pascali	Erreà	QTS
Motherwell	Baraclough, IanIan Baraclough	Lasley, KeithKeith Lasley	Macron	Cash Converters
Partick Thistle	Archibald, AlanAlan Archibald	Welsh, SeanSean Welsh	Joma	macb
Ross County	McIntyre, JimJim McIntyre	Brittain, RichardRichard Brittain	Carbrini	Stanley CRC Evans Offshore
St Johnstone	Wright, TommyTommy Wright	Mackay, DaveDave Mackay	Joma	GS Brown Construction
St Mirren	Teale, GaryGary Teale	Thompson, StevenSteven Thompson	Carbrini	JD Sports

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
St Mirren	Lennon, DannyDanny Lennon	End of contract	12 May 2014[17]	Pre-season	Craig, TommyTommy Craig	13 May 2014[18]
Celtic	Lennon, NeilNeil Lennon	Resigned	22 May 2014[19]	Pre-season	Deila, RonnyRonny Deila	6 June 2014[20]
Ross County	Adams, DerekDerek Adams	Sacked	28 August 2014[21]	12th	McIntyre, JimJim McIntyre	9 September 2014[22]
Motherwell	McCall, StuartStuart McCall	Resigned	2 November 2014[23]	11th	Baraclough, IanIan Baraclough	13 December 2014[24]
St Mirren	Craig, TommyTommy Craig	Sacked	9 December 2014[25]	11th	Teale, GaryGary Teale	29 January 2015
Hamilton Academical	Neil, AlexAlex Neil	Signed by Norwich City	9 January 2015[26]	3rd	Canning, MartinMartin Canning	23 January 2015[27]
Kilmarnock	Johnston, AllanAllan Johnston	Resigned	6 February 2015[28]	8th	Locke, GaryGary Locke	6 February 2015 (interim)

Tournament format and regulations

Basic

In the initial phase of the season, the 12 teams played a round-robin tournament whereby each team played each one of the other teams three times. After 33 games, the league split 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 were played, with 38 matches played by each team.

Promotion and relegation

The team that finished 12th (St Mirren) was relegated to the Championship, while the champion of that league (Heart of Midlothian) was promoted to the Premiership for the 2015–16 season. The team that finished 11th in the Premiership (Motherwell) played the winner of the Championship playoffs (Rangers) in two playoff games, with the winner (Motherwell) securing a Premiership spot for the 2015–16 season.

League table

Results

Matches 1–22

Teams played each other twice, once at home, once away.

Source: Scottish Premiership
1 ^{^} The home team is listed in the left-hand column.
Colours: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Matches 23–33

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

Source: Scottish Premiership
1 ^{^} The home team is listed in the left-hand column.
Colours: 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 scorers

As of 24 May 2015^[29][30]

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Adam Rooney	Aberdeen	18
2	Leigh Griffiths	Celtic	14
	Nadir Çiftçi	Dundee United	14
4	Greg Stewart	Dundee	13
5	Anthony Andreu	Hamilton Academical	12
	John Sutton	Motherwell	12
7	Ali Crawford	Hamilton Academical	11
8	Billy McKay	Inverness Caledonian Thistle	10
	Liam Boyce	Ross County	10
	Kris Commons	Celtic	10

Premiership play-offs

Quarter-final

First leg

Queen of the South v Rangers

9 May 2015 17:30

Queen of the South	1–2	Rangers
Lyle  64'	BBC Report	Smith  44' Shiels  75'

Palmerston Park, Dumfries Attendance: 5,224 Referee: Alan Muir

Second leg

Rangers v Queen of the South

17 May 2015 15:30

Rangers	1–1	Queen of the South
Wallace  60'	BBC Report	Lyle  35'

Ibrox Stadium, Glasgow Attendance: 48,035 Referee: Kevin Clancy

Rangers won 3–2 on aggregate.

Semi-final

First leg

Rangers v Hibernian

20 May 2015 19:45

Rangers	2–0	Hibernian
Clark  44' Miller  63'	BBC Report

Ibrox Stadium, Glasgow Attendance: 41,236 Referee: Calum Murray

Second leg

Hibernian v Rangers

23 May 2015 12:00

Hibernian	1–0	Rangers
Cummings  90+4'	BBC Report

Easter Road, Edinburgh Attendance: 14,742 Referee: John Beaton

Rangers won 2–1 on aggregate.

Final

First leg

Rangers v Motherwell

28 May 2015 19:45

Rangers	1–3	Motherwell
McGregor  82'	BBC Report	Erwin  27' McManus  40' Ainsworth  47'

Ibrox Stadium, Glasgow Attendance: 49,200 Referee: Bobby Madden

Second leg

Motherwell v Rangers

31 May 2015 15:00

Motherwell	3–0	Rangers
Johnson  52' Ainsworth  70' Sutton  90+3' (pen.)	BBC Report

Fir Park, Motherwell Attendance: 9,220 Referee: Craig Thomson

Motherwell won 6–1 on aggregate.

References

External links

• Official website