2001–02 in Scottish football

2001–02 in Scottish football
Premier League champions
Celtic
First Division champions
Partick Thistle
Second Division champions
Queen of the South
Third Division champions
Brechin City
Scottish Cup winners
Rangers
League Cup winners
Rangers
Challenge Cup winners
Airdrieonians
Junior Cup winners
Linlithgow Rose
Teams in Europe
Celtic, Hibernian, Kilmarnock, Rangers
Scotland national team
2002 World Cup qualification

The 2001–02 season was the 105th season of competitive football in Scotland. ^[1]

Key events

Celtic, domestic treble winners a year earlier, retain their Premier League title.^[2]

After failing to win anything the previous season, Rangers won the FA Cup and League Cup under their new manager Alex McLeish.^[3]

Airdrieonians, who narrowly missed out on promotion to the Premier League as First Division runners-up, went out of business of 1 May with debts of nearly £3million.^[4] Later that month, however, a new club representing the town of Airdrie - Airdrie United - was formed, with ambitions of gaining Scottish league status for the 2002–03 season.^[5]

Livingston, in the Premier League for the first time, finished third and qualified for the UEFA Cup. Livingston, who were known as Meadowbank Thistle until relocating from Edinburgh to Livingston in 1995 and played their first season in their new location as a Third Division club.^[6]

Falkirk avoided relegation from the First Division and Stenhousemuir avoided relegation from the Second as a result of the league losing a member. The vacant place in the Third Division was occupied by Gretna, who until then had played in the English non-league system.^[7]

Despite Gretna beating Airdrie United to the vacant league place, Airdrie United still gained a league place for the 2002–03 season – in the Second Division – as they bought out the debt-ridden club Clydebank.^[8]

Queen of the South won the Second Division league title for the first time in 51-years since they won the Division B league title in season 1950-51. These were the only two occasions that the Dumfries club had won a league title in their history, that was up until they won their third ever league title in season 2012–13, when they won the Second Division once again. ^[9]

League Competitions

Scottish Premier League

The 2001–02 Scottish Premier League was won by Celtic. Rangers finished second and therefore qualified for a UEFA Champions League place alongside Celtic. Livingston, in their debut season in Scotland's top division, qualified for the UEFA Cup along with Aberdeen. St Johnstone were relegated to the First Division.

P	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Celtic	38	33	4	1	94	18	+76	103	UEFA Champions League 2002–03 Third qualifying round
2	Rangers	38	25	10	3	82	27	+55	85	UEFA Cup 2002–03 First round
3	Livingston	38	16	10	12	50	47	+3	58	UEFA Cup 2002–03 Qualifying round
4	Aberdeen	38	16	7	15	51	49	+2	55	UEFA Cup 2002–03 Qualifying round
5	Heart of Midlothian	38	14	6	18	52	57	−5	48
6	Dunfermline Athletic	38	12	9	17	41	64	−23	45
7	Kilmarnock	38	13	10	15	44	54	−10	49
8	Dundee United	38	12	10	16	38	59	−21	46
9	Dundee	38	12	8	18	41	55	−14	44
10	Hibernian	38	10	11	17	51	56	−5	41
11	Motherwell	38	11	7	20	49	69	−20	40
12	St Johnstone	38	5	6	27	24	62	−38	21	Relegated to First Division 2002-03

Scottish First Division

P	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion or relegation
1	Partick Thistle	36	19	9	8	61	38	23	66	Promoted to 2002–03 Scottish Premier League
2	Airdrieonians	36	15	11	10	59	40	19	56	Went into liquidation and resigned from the league
3	Ayr United	36	13	13	10	53	44	9	52
4	Ross County	36	14	10	12	51	43	8	52
5	Clyde	36	13	10	13	51	56	−5	49
6	Inverness CT	36	13	9	14	60	51	9	48
7	Arbroath	36	14	6	16	42	59	−17	48
8	St Mirren	36	11	12	13	43	53	−10	45
9	Falkirk	36	10	9	17	49	73	−24	39	Reprieved from relegation
10	Raith Rovers	36	8	11	17	50	62	−12	35	Relegated to Second Division 2002-03

Scottish Second Division

P	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion or relegation
1	Queen of the South	36	20	7	9	64	42	22	67	Promoted To First Division 2002-03
2	Alloa Athletic	36	15	14	7	55	33	22	59
3	Forfar Athletic	36	15	8	13	51	47	4	53
4	Clydebank	36	14	9	13	44	45	−1	51	League place purchased by Airdrie United; reformed in Central League Division Two
5	Hamilton Academical	36	13	9	14	49	44	5	48
6	Berwick Rangers	36	12	11	13	44	52	−8	47
7	Stranraer	36	10	15	11	48	51	−3	45
8	Cowdenbeath	36	11	11	14	49	51	−2	44
9	Stenhousemuir	36	8	12	16	33	57	−24	36	Reprieved from relegation
10	Greenock Morton	36	7	14	15	48	63	−15	35	Relegated to Third Division 2002-03

Scottish Third Division

P	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion
1	Brechin City	36	22	7	7	67	38	29	73	Promoted to Second Division 2002-03
2	Dumbarton	36	18	7	11	59	48	11	61
3	Albion Rovers	36	22	11	9	51	32	19	59
4	Peterhead	36	17	5	14	63	52	11	56
5	Montrose	36	16	7	13	43	39	4	55
6	Elgin City	36	13	8	15	45	47	−2	47
7	East Stirlingshire	36	12	4	20	51	58	−7	40
8	East Fife	36	11	7	18	39	56	−32	40
9	Stirling Albion	36	9	10	17	45	68	−23	37
10	Queen's Park	36	9	8	19	38	53	−15	35

Other honours

Cup honours

Competition	Winner	Score	Runner-up	Report
Scottish Cup 2001–02	Rangers	3 – 2	Celtic	Wikipedia article
League Cup 2001–02	Rangers	4 – 0	Ayr United	Wikipedia article
Challenge Cup 2001–02	Airdrieonians	2 – 1	Alloa Athletic	Wikipedia article
Youth Cup	Rangers	4 – 2	Ayr United
Junior Cup	Linlithgow Rose	1 – 0	Auchinleck Talbot

Individual honours

SPFA awards

Award	Player	Team
Players' Player of the Year	Lorenzo Amoruso	Rangers
Young Player of the Year	Kevin McNaughton	Aberdeen

SFWA awards

Award	Player	Team
Footballer of the Year	Paul Lambert	Celtic
Young Player of the Year	James McFadden	Motherwell
Manager of the Year	Martin O'Neill	Celtic

Scottish clubs in Europe

Club	Competition(s)	Final round	Coef.
Celtic	UEFA Champions League UEFA Cup	Group stage Third round	10.00
Rangers	UEFA Champions League UEFA Cup	Third qualifying round Fourth round	11.50
Kilmarnock	UEFA Cup	First round	3.00
Hibernian	UEFA Cup	First round	2.00

Average coefficient - 6.625

Scotland national team

Date	Venue	Opponents	Score[10]	Competition	Scotland scorer(s)	Report
1 September	Hampden Park, Glasgow (H)	Croatia	0–0	WCQG6		BBC Sport
5 September	Stade Roi Baudouin, Brussels (A)	Belgium	0–2	WCQG6		BBC Sport
6 October	Hampden Park, Glasgow (H)	Latvia	2–1	WCQG6	Dougie Freedman, David Weir	BBC Sport
27 March	Stade de France, Saint-Denis (A)	France	0–5	Friendly		BBC Sport
17 April	Pittodrie, Aberdeen (H)	Nigeria	1–2	Friendly	Christian Dailly	BBC Sport
16 May	Asiad Main Stadium, Busan (A)	South Korea	1–4	Friendly	Scott Dobie	BBC Sport
20 May	Mongkok Stadium, Hong Kong (N)	South Africa	0–2	Friendly		BBC Sport

Key:

• (H) = Home match
• (A) = Away match
• WCQG6 = World Cup Qualifying - Group 6

See also

• 2001–02 Aberdeen F.C. season
• 2001–02 Celtic F.C. season
• 2001–02 Dundee United F.C. season
• 2001–02 Rangers F.C. season

Notes and references

1. http://www.scottishfootballleague.com/stats/records/league-championship/league-tables/2000-2007/200102/
9. http://www.qosfan.co.uk/honours.php
10. Scotland's score is shown first.

External links

• Scottish Premier League official website
• Scottish Football League official website
• BBC Scottish Premier League portal
• BBC Scottish Football League portal