# 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.

## Teams

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 | 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)
| 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 | 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.
* 10 November – Edinburgh derby rivals Hearts and Hibs beat the Old Firm of Celtic and Rangers on the same day. Hearts beat Celtic 2–0 at Tynecastle, while Hibs produced a 3–0 win against Rangers at Ibrox. The Scotsman newspaper reported that this last happened in April 1972.

### Referee strike

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

## 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
* 1 2 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 | |

### 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 | | |

### 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.

## Statistics
### Top scorers

    As of 18:01, 15 May 2011 (UTC)
| Rank | Scorer | Team | Goals |
| 1 | Kenny Miller | Rangers | 21 |
| 2 | Gary Hooper | Celtic | 20 |
| 3 | David Goodwillie | Dundee United | 17 |
| 4 | Nikica Jelavić | Rangers | 16 |
| 5 | Adam Rooney | Inverness CT | 15 |
| 5 | Conor Sammon | Kilmarnock | 15 |
| 5 | Anthony Stokes | Celtic | 15 |
| 8 | Michael Higdon | St Mirren | 14 |
| 9 | Rudolf Skácel | Heart of Midlothian | 13 |
| 10 | Nick Blackman | Aberdeen | 12 |

### Hat-tricks

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

## Awards
### Monthly awards

| Month | Manager of the Month | Manager of the Month | Player of the Month | Player of the Month | Young Player of the Month | Young Player of the Month |
| Month | Manager | Club | Player | Club | Player | Club |
| August | Walter Smith | Rangers | Kenny Miller | Rangers | James Forrest | Celtic |
| September | Neil Lennon | Celtic | Kenny Miller | Rangers | Chris Maguire | Aberdeen |
| October | Terry Butcher | Inverness CT | Steven Naismith | Rangers | Ki Sung-yueng | Celtic |
| November | Jim Jefferies | Heart of Midlothian | Alexei Eremenko | Kilmarnock | David Templeton | Heart of Midlothian |
| December | Mixu Paatelainen | Kilmarnock | Marius Žaliūkas | Heart of Midlothian | David Templeton | Heart of Midlothian |
| January | Neil Lennon | Celtic | Beram Kayal | Celtic | Jamie Ness | Rangers |
| February | Colin Calderwood | Hibernian | Marián Kello | Heart of Midlothian | Callum Booth | Hibernian |
| March | Peter Houston | Dundee United | David Goodwillie | Dundee United | Johnny Russell | Dundee United |
| April | Neil Lennon | Celtic | Allan McGregor | Rangers | Jamie Murphy | Motherwell |

### Clydesdale Bank Premier League Awards

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