2015–16 Scottish Championship

Ladbrokes Championship

Season	2015–16
Champions	Rangers
Promoted	Rangers
Relegated	Alloa Athletic Livingston
Europa League	Hibernian
Matches played	180
Goals scored	483 (2.68 per match)
Top goalscorer	Martyn Waghorn (20 goals)^[1]
Biggest home win	Queen of the South 6–0 Dumbarton^[2] (19 March 2016)
Biggest away win	Dumbarton 0–6 Rangers^[2] (2 January 2016)
Highest scoring	Raith Rovers 4–3 St Mirren^[2] (5 March 2016) Rangers 4–3 Queen of the South^[2] (26 March 2016)
Longest winning run	11 matches:^[2] Rangers
Longest unbeaten run	14 matches:^[2] Hibernian
Longest winless run	12 matches:^[2] Alloa Athletic
Longest losing run	7 matches:^[2] Alloa Athletic
Highest attendance	50,349^[2] Rangers 1–1 Alloa Athletic (23 April 2016)
Lowest attendance	468^[2] Dumbarton 3–1 Alloa Athletic (8 March 2016)
Total attendance	1,331,484^[2]
Average attendance	7,397^[2]
← 2014–15 2016–17 → All statistics correct as of 7 May 2016.

The 2015–16 Scottish Championship (referred to as the Ladbrokes Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the 21st season in the current format of 10 teams in the second tier of Scottish football.

Rangers won the league title and promotion after a 1–0 win against Dumbarton on 5 April 2016,^[3] while Alloa Athletic were relegated after a 0–0 draw against Livingston on 2 April 2016.^[4]

Teams

The following teams have changed division since the 2014–15 season.

To Championship

Promoted from Scottish League One

Greenock Morton

Relegated from Scottish Premiership

St Mirren

From Championship

Promoted to Scottish Premiership

Heart of Midlothian

Relegated to Scottish League One

Cowdenbeath

Stadia and locations

Alloa Athletic	Dumbarton	Falkirk	Greenock Morton
Recreation Park	Dumbarton Football Stadium	Falkirk Stadium	Cappielow Park
Capacity: 3,100^[5]	Capacity: 2,020^[6]	Capacity: 8,750^[7]	Capacity: 11,589^[8]

Hibernian	Alloa Athletic Dumbarton Falkirk Morton Hibernian Livingston Queen of the South Raith Rovers Rangers St Mirren		Livingston
Easter Road			Almondvale Stadium
Capacity: 20,421^[9]			Capacity: 9,865^[10]

Queen of the South	Raith Rovers	Rangers	St Mirren
Palmerston Park	Stark's Park	Ibrox Stadium	St Mirren Park
Capacity: 8,690^[11]	Capacity: 8,867^[12]	Capacity: 50,817^[13]	Capacity: 8,023^[14]

Personnel and kits

Team	Manager	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
Alloa Athletic	Jack Ross	Pendle	Marshall Construction
Dumbarton	Stephen Aitken	Joma	Baxter Ramsay
Falkirk	Peter Houston	Puma	Central Demolition
Greenock Morton	Jim Duffy	Nike	Millions Sweets
Hibernian	Alan Stubbs	Nike	Marathonbet
Livingston	David Hopkin	Joma	Energy Assets
Queen of the South	Gavin Skelton (Caretaker)	Joma	Palmerston Cafe
Raith Rovers	Ray McKinnon	Puma	valmcdermid.com (Home shirt) D&G Autocare (Away shirt)
Rangers	Mark Warburton	Puma	32Red
St Mirren	Alex Rae	Carbrini	JD Sports

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Dumbarton	name !Ian Murray	Signed by St Mirren	22 May 2015^[15]	Pre-season	name !Stevie Aitken	27 May 2015^[16]
St Mirren	name !Gary Teale	Sacked	22 May 2015^[15]		name !Ian Murray	22 May 2015^[15]
Raith Rovers	name !Laurie Ellis (interim)	End of interim	23 May 2015^[17]		name !Ray McKinnon	23 May 2015^[17]
Rangers	name !Stuart McCall (interim)	End of interim	15 June 2015^[18]		name !Mark Warburton	15 June 2015^[18]
Alloa Athletic	name !Danny Lennon	Resigned	7 December 2015^[19]	10th	name !Jack Ross	15 December 2015^[20]
St Mirren	name !Ian Murray	Resigned	12 December 2015^[21]	8th	name !Alex Rae	18 December 2015^[22]
Livingston	name !Mark Burchill	Sacked	21 December 2015^[23]	9th	name !David Hopkin^a	23 December 2015^[24]^[25]
Queen of the South	name !James Fowler	Sacked	19 April 2016^[26]	7th	name !Gavin Skelton (interim)	19 April 2016^[26]

a.^ Initially interim, made permanent 5 January 2016

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion, qualification or relegation
1	Rangers (C, P)	36	25	6	5	88	34	+54	81	Promotion to Scottish Premiership
2	Falkirk (Q)	36	19	13	4	61	34	+27	70	Qualification to Premiership play-off semi-finals
3	Hibernian (Q)	36	21	7	8	59	34	+25	70	Qualification to Premiership play-off quarter-finals
4	Raith Rovers (Q)	36	18	8	10	52	46	+6	62	Qualification to Premiership play-off quarter-finals
5	Greenock Morton	36	11	10	15	39	42	−3	43
6	St Mirren	36	11	9	16	44	53	−9	42
7	Queen of the South	36	12	6	18	46	56	−10	42
8	Dumbarton	36	10	7	19	35	66	−31	37
9	Livingston (Q, R)	36	8	7	21	37	51	−14	31	Qualification to Championship play-offs
10	Alloa Athletic (R)	36	4	9	23	22	67	−45	21	Relegation to Scottish League One

Updated to match(es) played on 1 May 2016. Source: BBC Sport
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Number of goals scored
(C) Champion; (P) Promoted; (Q) Qualified to the phase indicated; (R) Relegated.

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 36 games.

First half of season

Home ╲ Away	Alloa Athletic !ALO	Dumbarton !DUM	Falkirk !FAL	Greenock Morton !GMO	Hibernian !HIB	Livingston !LIV	Queen of the South !QOS	Raith Rovers !RAI	Rangers !RAN	St Mirren !STM
Alloa Athletic !Alloa Athletic		0–2	1–1	0–1	0–1	0–3	1–2	0–1	1–5	0–2
Dumbarton !Dumbarton	0–2		0–5	1–2	2–1	2–1	0–2	3–3	1–2	1–0
Falkirk !Falkirk	5–0	2–1		1–0	0–1	2–0	0–0	1–0	2–1	3–0
Greenock Morton !Greenock Morton	1–0	0–0	1–1		0–1	1–0	2–0	1–2	0–4	0–0
Hibernian !Hibernian	3–0	4–2	1–1	1–0		2–1	1–0	2–0	2–1	1–1
Livingston !Livingston	0–1	1–1	1–2	2–4	0–1		0–1	3–0	1–1	0–1
Queen of the South !Queen of the South	3–1	1–0	2–2	2–2	0–3	1–4		1–1	1–5	0–2
Raith Rovers !Raith Rovers	3–0	1–0	1–2	2–1	1–2	3–0	1–0		0–1	1–1
Rangers !Rangers	4–0	4–0	3–1	2–2	1–0	3–0	2–1	5–0		3–1
St Mirren !St Mirren	1–1	1–2	2–3	1–1	1–4	1–1	1–0	1–2	0–1

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

Second half of season

Home ╲ Away	Alloa Athletic !ALO	Dumbarton !DUM	Falkirk !FAL	Greenock Morton !GMO	Hibernian !HIB	Livingston !LIV	Queen of the South !QOS	Raith Rovers !RAI	Rangers !RAN	St Mirren !STM
Alloa Athletic !Alloa Athletic		1–1	0–1	2–2	1–0	1–3	2–2	1–1	1–1	0–1
Dumbarton !Dumbarton	3–1		1–1	0–0	3–2	1–0	4–2	2–3	0–6	2–1
Falkirk !Falkirk	2–0	1–0		1–0	1–1	1–2	3–1	2–2	3–2	3–2
Greenock Morton !Greenock Morton	4–1	2–0	0–1		0–0	2–1	3–2	0–1	0–2	0–1
Hibernian !Hibernian	3–0	4–0	2–2	0–3		2–1	2–0	1–0	3–2	3–1
Livingston !Livingston	0–0	2–0	1–1	0–0	0–0		0–2	0–1	1–0	2–3
Queen of the South !Queen of the South	1–0	6–0	2–2	1–0	1–0	3–1		1–2	0–1	1–0
Raith Rovers !Raith Rovers	0–1	0–0	2–2	3–2	2–1	2–0	2–0		3–3	4–3
Rangers !Rangers	1–1	1–0	1–0	3–1	4–2	4–1	4–3	2–0		1–0
St Mirren !St Mirren	3–1	1–0	0–0	3–1	2–2	1–4	2–1	1–2	2–2

Season statistics

Scoring

Top scorers

As of matches played on 1 May 2016^[27]^[1]

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Martyn Waghorn	Rangers	20
2	Jason Cummings	Hibernian	18
3	John Baird	Falkirk	17
4	Denny Johnstone	Greenock Morton	14
4	Kenny Miller	Rangers	14
6	Derek Lyle	Queen of the South	13
7	Liam Buchanan	Livingston	11
	Iain Russell	Queen of the South
	Stevie Mallan	St Mirren

Discipline

Player

Yellow cards

As of matches played on 1 May 2016^[28]

Rank	Player	Club	Cards
1	Darren Barr	Dumbarton	9
1	Kyle Jacobs	Queen of the South	9
3	Jon Routledge	Dumbarton	8
	Declan McManus	Greenock Morton
	Liam Henderson	Hibernian
	Lewis Stevenson	Hibernian
	Ben Gordon	Livingston
	Chris Higgins	Queen of the South
	Lewis Toshney	Raith Rovers
10	9 players		7

Red cards

As of matches played on 1 May 2016^[28]

Rank	Player	Club	Cards
1	Kyle Benedictus	Raith Rovers	2
1	Andy Halliday	Rangers	2
3	22 players		1

Club

Yellow cards

As of matches played on 1 May 2016^[29]

Rank	Club	Cards
1	Queen of the South	72
2	Raith Rovers	62
3	Greenock Morton	61
3	Livingston	61

Red cards

As of matches played on 1 May 2016^[29]

Rank	Club	Cards
1	Alloa Athletic	4
	Dumbarton
	St Mirren
4	Queen of the South	3
4	Raith Rovers	3

Attendances

Pos	Team	Total	High	Low	Average	Change
1	Alloa Athletic !Alloa Athletic	20,182	3,100	492	1,121	-0.78777231201687−21.2%^†
2	Dumbarton !Dumbarton	18,739	1,978	468	1,041	-0.97108208955224−2.8%^†
3	Falkirk !Falkirk	84,052	7,804	3,550	4,669	-0.98752115059222−1.2%^†
4	Greenock Morton !Greenock Morton	49,153	7,392	1,175	2,730	0.59090909090909+59.0%^†
5	Hibernian !Hibernian	168,105	14,412	6,686	9,339	-0.91937389249852−8.0%^†
6	Livingston !Livingston	31,766	6,505	787	1,764	-0.72742268041237−27.2%^†
7	Queen of the South !Queen of the South	38,072	5,858	1,047	2,115	-0.76630434782609−23.3%^†
8	Raith Rovers !Raith Rovers	41,698	6,943	1,064	2,316	-0.89145496535797−10.8%^†
9	Rangers !Rangers	815,841	50,349	37,182	45,324	0.38195566667683+38.1%^†
10	St Mirren !St Mirren	63,876	5,933	2,321	3,548	-0.91703282501938−8.2%^†
	League total	1,331,484	50,349	468	7,397	-0.97393021724819−2.6%^†

Updated to games played on 1 May 2016
Source: ^[2]^[30]

Championship play-offs

Livingston, the second bottom team, entered into a 4-team playoff with the 2nd-4th placed teams in 2015–16 Scottish League One; Ayr United, Peterhead, and Stranraer.

Semi-finals

First leg

3 May 2016^[31]	Peterhead	1–4	Ayr United	Balmoor, Peterhead
20:00	McIntosh 35'	BBC Report	Donald 18' Preston 41', 59' Crawford 74'	Attendance: 807 Referee: Stephen Finnie

4 May 2016^[31]	Stranraer	5–2	Livingston	Stair Park, Stranraer
19:45	McGuigan 14', 70' Stirling 17' Gibson 40', 81'	BBC Report	White 10' Buchanan 68'	Attendance: 589 Referee: John Beaton

Second leg

7 May 2016^[31]	Ayr United	2–1 (6–2 agg.)	Peterhead	Somerset Park, Ayr
15:00	Crawford 26' Devlin 57'	BBC Report	Donald 31' (o.g.)	Attendance: 1,848 Referee: Crawford Allan

7 May 2016^[31]	Livingston	4–3 (a.e.t.) (6–8 agg.)	Stranraer	Almondvale Stadium, Livingston
15:00	Buchanan 18' White 45+2' Mullen 89' Halkett 90+4'	BBC Report	Cairney 62' Dick 109' Longworth 120'	Attendance: 1,018 Referee: Craig Thomson

Final

The winners of the semi-finals, Ayr United and Stranraer, competed against one another over two legs, with the winner, Ayr, replacing Livingston and being promoted to the 2016–17 Scottish Championship.

First leg

11 May 2016^[32]	Stranraer	1–1	Ayr United	Stair Park, Stranraer
19:45	McGuigan 54'	BBC Report	Docherty 90+5'	Attendance: 1,652 Referee: Bobby Madden

Second leg

15 May 2016^[32]	Ayr United	0–0 (a.e.t.) (1–1 agg.) (3–1 p)	Stranraer	Somerset Park, Ayr
14:45		BBC Report		Attendance: 4,581 Referee: Andrew Dallas
		Penalties
	Preston Trouten Docherty Graham		Cairney Longworth Barron Gibson

References

1 2 "2015–16 Scottish Championship scorers". ESPN. Retrieved 26 April 2016.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 "2015–16 Scottish Championship performance". ESPN. Retrieved 26 April 2016.
↑ "Rangers 1-0 Dumbarton". BBC Sport. 5 April 2016.
↑ "Livingston 0-0 Alloa Athletic". BBC Sport. 2 April 2016.
↑ "Alloa Athletic Football Club". Scottish Professional Football League. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
↑ "Dumbarton Football Club". Scottish Professional Football League. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
↑ "Falkirk Football Club". Scottish Professional Football League. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
↑ "Greenock Morton Football Club". Scottish Professional Football League. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
↑ "Hibernian Football Club". Scottish Professional Football League. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
↑ "Livingston Football Club". Scottish Professional Football League. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
↑ "Queen of the South Football Club". Scottish Professional Football League. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
↑ "Raith Rovers Football Club". Scottish Professional Football League. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
↑ "Rangers Football Club". Scottish Professional Football League. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
↑ "St Mirren Football Club". Scottish Professional Football League. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
1 2 3 "St Mirren: Ian Murray leaves Dumbarton to be Buddies boss". BBC Sport. 22 May 2015. Retrieved 26 April 2016.
↑ "Dumbarton: Stranraer's Stephen Aitken makes managerial switch". BBC Sport. 27 May 2015. Retrieved 26 April 2016.
1 2 "Raith Rovers: Brechin's Ray McKinnon in Kirkcaldy switch". BBC Sport. 23 May 2015. Retrieved 26 April 2016.
1 2 "Rangers: Mark Warburton - 'no short-term fixes' for new manager". BBC Sport. 15 June 2015. Retrieved 26 April 2016.
↑ "Danny Lennon resigns as Alloa Athletic manager". BBC Sport. 7 December 2015. Retrieved 26 April 2016.
↑ "Alloa Athletic name Jack Ross as their new manager". BBC Sport. 15 December 2015. Retrieved 26 April 2016.
↑ "St Mirren: Ian Murray resigns after six months as manager". BBC Sport. 12 December 2015. Retrieved 26 April 2016.
↑ "St Mirren: Alex Rae succeeds Ian Murray as manager". BBC Sport. 18 December 2015. Retrieved 26 April 2016.
↑ "Livingston sack manager Mark Burchill". BBC Sport. 21 December 2015. Retrieved 26 April 2016.
↑ "Interim role for Hopkin at Livingston". SPFL. 23 December 2015. Retrieved 26 April 2016.
↑ "David Hopkin appointed Livingston head coach until end of season". BBC Sport. 5 January 2016. Retrieved 26 April 2016.
1 2 "Queen of the South part with manager James Fowler". BBC Sport. 19 April 2016. Retrieved 26 April 2016.
↑ "Scottish Championship Top Scorers". BBC. Retrieved 23 September 2015.
1 2 "2015–16 Scottish Championship statistics – Player Discipline". ESPN. Retrieved 26 April 2016.
1 2 "2015–16 Scottish League One statistics – Club Discipline". ESPN. Retrieved 5 September 2015.
↑ "2014–15 Scottish Championship performance". ESPN. Retrieved 6 October 2016.
1 2 3 4 "Play-off fixtures for next week". SPFL.
1 2 "Championship play-off final on BBC ALBA". spfl.co.uk. 5 May 2016. Retrieved 5 May 2016.

Scottish Professional Football League

« Scottish Premier League (1998–2013)

Divisions	Premiership Championship League One League Two

Cup competitions	League Cup Challenge Cup

2016–17 Premiership teams	Aberdeen Celtic Dundee Hamilton Academical Heart of Midlothian Inverness Caledonian Thistle Kilmarnock Motherwell Partick Thistle Rangers Ross County St Johnstone

2016–17 Championship teams	Ayr United Dumbarton Dundee United Dunfermline Athletic Falkirk Greenock Morton Hibernian Queen of the South Raith Rovers St Mirren

2016–17 League One teams	Airdrieonians Albion Rovers Alloa Athletic Brechin City East Fife Livingston Peterhead Queen's Park Stenhousemuir Stranraer

2016–17 League Two teams	Annan Athletic Arbroath Berwick Rangers Clyde Cowdenbeath Edinburgh City Elgin City Forfar Athletic Montrose Stirling Albion

Former teams	East Stirlingshire

Seasons	2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17

Broadcasters Clubs Foreign players Managers Monthly awards Stadia

Second division football seasons in Scotland

Division Two	1893–94 1894–95 1895–96 1896–97 1897–98 1898–99 1899–00 1900–01 1901–02 1902–03 1903–04 1904–05 1905–06 1906–07 1907–08 1908–09 1909–10 1910–11 1911–12 1912–13 1913–14 1914–15 1915–16 1916–17 1917–18 1918–19 1919–20 1920–21 1921–22 1922–23 1923–24 1924–25 1925–26 1926–27 1927–28 1928–29 1929–30 1930–31 1931–32 1932–33 1933–34 1934–35 1935–36 1936–37 1937–38 1938–39 1939–40 1940–41 1941–42 1942–43 1943–44 1944–45 1945–46 1946–47 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50 1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75

First Division	1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–00 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13

Scottish Championship	2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17

2015–16 in Scottish football

« 2014–15 2016–17 »

Domestic leagues	SPFL Premiership Championship League One League Two Highland Lowland East of Scotland South of Scotland North Caledonian SJFA West Premier SJFA East Superleague SJFA North Superleague SPFL Development League Women's Premier League

Domestic cups	Scottish Cup (Final) League Cup (Final) Challenge Cup (Final) Junior Cup Youth Cup Women's Cup

European competitions	Champions League Europa League Youth League

Related to national team	Results UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying Group D

Transfers	Summer 2015 Winter 2015–16

Club seasons

Premiership	Aberdeen Celtic Dundee Dundee United Hamilton Academical Heart of Midlothian Inverness Caledonian Thistle Kilmarnock Motherwell Partick Thistle Ross County St Johnstone

Championship	Alloa Athletic Dumbarton Falkirk Greenock Morton Hibernian Livingston Queen of the South Raith Rovers Rangers St. Mirren

League One	Airdrieonians Albion Rovers Ayr United Brechin City Cowdenbeath Dunfermline Athletic Forfar Athletic Peterhead Stenhousemuir Stranraer

League Two	Annan Athletic Arbroath Berwick Rangers Clyde East Fife East Stirlingshire Elgin City Montrose Queen's Park Stirling Albion

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