# 2008–09 Scottish First Division

The 2008–09 Scottish First Division was the 15th season of the First Division in its current format of ten teams.

## Promotion and relegation from 2007–08
### SPL & First Division

Promoted from First Division to Scottish Premier League
* Hamilton Academical

### First & Second Divisions

Relegated from First Division to Second Division
* Stirling Albion
Promoted from Second Division to First Division
* Ross County (champions)
* Airdrie United (losing play-off finalists, promoted due to Gretna's relegation to Division Three)

## League table

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Promotion, qualification or relegation |
| 1 | St Johnstone (C, P) | 36 | 17 | 14 | 5 | 55 | 35 | +20 | 65 | Promotion to the Premier League |
| 2 | Partick Thistle | 36 | 16 | 7 | 13 | 39 | 35 | +4 | 55 | |
| 3 | Dunfermline Athletic | 36 | 14 | 9 | 13 | 51 | 43 | +8 | 51 | |
| 4 | Dundee | 36 | 13 | 11 | 12 | 33 | 32 | +1 | 50 | |
| 5 | Queen of the South | 36 | 12 | 11 | 13 | 57 | 50 | +7 | 47 | |
| 6 | Greenock Morton | 36 | 12 | 11 | 13 | 40 | 40 | 0 | 47 | |
| 7 | Livingston (R) | 36 | 13 | 8 | 15 | 56 | 58 | −2 | 47 | |
| 8 | Ross County | 36 | 13 | 8 | 15 | 42 | 46 | −4 | 47 | |
| 9 | Airdrie United | 36 | 10 | 12 | 14 | 29 | 43 | −14 | 42 | Qualification for the First Division Play-offs |
| 10 | Clyde (R) | 36 | 10 | 9 | 17 | 41 | 58 | −17 | 39 | Relegation to the Second Division |
* ↑ Demoted to 3rd Division for Financial Irregularities
* ↑ Spared Relegation as Losing Finalist in the playoff due to Livingston
* ↑ The 9th placed team will be entered into a play-off with the Second Division's 2nd, 3rd and 4th placed teams. The winning team will be awarded a place in the 2009–10 First Division.

## Results

Teams play each other four times in this league. In the first half of the season each team plays every other team twice (home and away) and then do the same in the second half of the season.

### First half of season

| Home \ Away | AIR | CLY | DND | DNF | GMO | LIV | PAR | QOS | ROS | STJ |
| Airdrie United | | 0–2 | 0–0 | 1–3 | 5–0 | 0–0 | 0–1 | 2–0 | 0–2 | 1–1 |
| Clyde | 1–0 | | 1–0 | 0–2 | 1–1 | 2–1 | 1–1 | 0–2 | 2–2 | 2–2 |
| Dundee | 1–1 | 1–0 | | 0–0 | 1–0 | 0–3 | 0–0 | 2–0 | 1–2 | 1–1 |
| Dunfermline Athletic | 0–0 | 4–4 | 0–1 | | 0–1 | 1–2 | 1–0 | 2–1 | 3–1 | 1–2 |
| Greenock Morton | 2–0 | 1–0 | 2–0 | 1–1 | | 1–2 | 2–0 | 0–0 | 2–1 | 2–2 |
| Livingston | 1–2 | 2–1 | 1–2 | 2–3 | 1–0 | | 3–1 | 2–0 | 2–0 | 0–1 |
| Partick Thistle | 2–1 | 2–0 | 0–0 | 1–0 | 2–1 | 2–1 | | 2–0 | 0–1 | 4–0 |
| Queen of the South | 0–0 | 0–2 | 3–1 | 1–2 | 1–4 | 6–1 | 2–0 | | 1–0 | 2–2 |
| Ross County | 2–0 | 3–0 | 1–2 | 2–1 | 3–0 | 1–4 | 1–0 | 0–2 | | 1–2 |
| St Johnstone | 3–1 | 2–3 | 2–0 | 0–3 | 1–0 | 2–0 | 3–0 | 0–0 | 2–1 | |

### Second half of season

| Home \ Away | AIR | CLY | DND | DNF | GMO | LIV | PAR | QOS | ROS | STJ |
| Airdrie United | | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1–1 | 1–0 | 4–4 | 0–1 | 2–0 | 1–0 | 0–4 |
| Clyde | 3–0 | | 2–0 | 1–4 | 2–4 | 0–1 | 2–4 | 1–1 | 2–0 | 1–3 |
| Dundee | 0–1 | 2–1 | | 1–0 | 0–0 | 4–1 | 4–0 | 2–3 | 2–0 | 0–1 |
| Dunfermline Athletic | 1–1 | 1–1 | 1–1 | | 2–1 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 0–2 | 1–2 | 1–3 |
| Greenock Morton | 0–0 | 2–0 | 2–0 | 2–1 | | 2–2 | 0–1 | 2–2 | 0–2 | 0–0 |
| Livingston | 1–1 | 1–1 | 0–1 | 4–2 | 0–2 | | 2–4 | 2–2 | 4–2 | 1–0 |
| Partick Thistle | 0–1 | 0–1 | 1–1 | 2–3 | 1–0 | 1–0 | | 0–2 | 0–2 | 0–0 |
| Queen of the South | 4–0 | 7–1 | 0–1 | 0–3 | 1–1 | 3–3 | 2–2 | | 1–2 | 3–3 |
| Ross County | 0–0 | 0–0 | 1–1 | 1–3 | 1–1 | 2–2 | 0–2 | 1–0 | | 2–2 |
| St Johnstone | 3–0 | 1–0 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 3–1 | 1–0 | 1–1 | 2–3 | 0–0 | |

## Top scorers

| Rank | Scorer | Team | Goals |
| 1 | Stephen Dobbie | Queen of the South | 24 |
| 2 | Leigh Griffiths | Livingston | 18 |
| 3 | Andy Kirk | Dunfermline Athletic | 15 |
| 4 | Steven Milne | St Johnstone | 14 |
| 4 | Mickaël Antoine-Curier | Dundee | 14 |
| 6 | Pat Clarke | Clyde | 11 |
| 7 | Simon Lynch | Airdrie United | 10 |
| 7 | Steven Craig | Ross County | 10 |
| 7 | Sean Higgins | Ross County | 10 |
| 10 | Peter Weatherson | Greenock Morton | 9 |
| 10 | Brian Wake | Greenock Morton | 9 |
| 10 | Gary Harkins | Partick Thistle | 9 |
| 13 | Nick Phinn | Dunfermline Athletic | 8 |
| 14 | Colin McMenamin | Dundee | 7 |
| 15 | William McLaren | Clyde | 6 |
| 15 | Ruari MacLennan | Clyde | 6 |
Source: The League Insider

## Attendance

| Team | Stadium | Capacity | Highest | Lowest | Average |
| Dundee | Dens Park | 11,856 | 6,537 | 2,831 | 3,995 |
| St Johnstone | McDiarmid Park | 10,673 | 7,238 | 2,259 | 3,502 |
| Dunfermline Athletic | East End Park | 11,998 | 4,998 | 1,371 | 3,255 |
| Partick Thistle | Firhill Stadium | 10,887 | 3,378 | 2,296 | 2,956 |
| Queen of the South | Palmerston Park | 6,412 | 3,339 | 2,029 | 2,720 |
| Greenock Morton | Cappielow | 11,612 | 3,323 | 1,685 | 2,279 |
| Ross County | Victoria Park | 6,310 | 3,444 | 1,625 | 2,279 |
| Livingston | Almondvale Stadium | 10,016 | 2,169 | 1,068 | 1,728 |
| Airdrie United | New Broomfield | 10,171 | 2,165 | 633 | 1,356 |
| Clyde | Broadwood Stadium | 8,006 | 2,114 | 776 | 1,236 |
Source: The League Insider

## Kits and shirt sponsors

| Team | Kit supplier | Shirt sponsor(s) | Notes |
| Airdrie United | Surridge | St. Andrew's Hospice | New home strip. |
| Clyde | Surridge | Optical Express/Reface Scotland | New kit supplier and new away kit sponsor. Reface Scotland are away kit sponsor. |
| Dundee | Bukta | Bukta | New home kit, Bukta replace Signitures4U as sponsor. |
| Dunfermline Athletic | Puma | The Purvis Group | New kit supplier, return to traditional black and white striped home kit. |
| Greenock Morton | Bukta | Millions | New home kit |
| Livingston | Macron | RDF Consulting | New kit supplier Macron replacing Nike with a new yellow home kit, while IT solutions provider RDF Consulting sponsor the Lions for the next two seasons. |
| Partick Thistle | Puma | Ignis Asset Management | Puma replace Diadora as kit supplier. |
| Queen of the South | Surridge | JB Houston Butchers/Maxwelltown Builders | New home and away kits. Home kit is traditional blue and Away kit is red. JB Houston Butchers displayed on front of shirt, Maxwelltown Builders at the back. |
| Ross County | Adidas | HIGHnet | |
| St Johnstone | Surridge | George Wimpey | New home kit |

## Managerial changes

| Team | Outgoing manager | Manner of departure | Date of vacancy | Replaced by | Date of appointment | Table position |
| Dundee | Alex Rae | Sacked | 20 October | Jocky Scott | 30 October | 8 |
| Livingston | Roberto Landi | Sacked | 1 December | Paul Hegarty | 5 December | 5 |
| Livingston | Paul Hegarty | Suspended | 25 April | John Murphy | 30 June | 6 |

## Monthly awards

| Month | First Division manager | First Division manager | SFL Player | SFL Player | SFL Young player | SFL Young player |
| Month | Manager | Club | Player | Club | Player | Club |
| August | Roberto Landi | Livingston | Stephen Robertson | Airdrie United | Leigh Griffiths | Livingston |
| September | Jim McIntyre | Dunfermline Athletic | Paul McManus | East Fife | Calum Elliot | Livingston |
| October | Derek McInnes | St Johnstone | Steven Milne | St Johnstone | Dominic Shimmin | Greenock Morton |
| November | Jocky Scott | Dundee | Bryan Prunty | Ayr United | Kyle Benedictus | Dundee |
| December | John Brown | Clyde | Alan Main | St Johnstone | Chris McMenamin | Berwick Rangers |
| January | Ian McCall | Partick Thistle | Willie McLaren | Clyde | Bobby Barr | Albion Rovers |
| February | Jocky Scott | Dundee | Gary Harkins | Partick Thistle | Fraser McLaren | Berwick Rangers |
| March | Paul Hegarty | Livingston | Kevin Rutkiewicz | St Johnstone | Leigh Griffiths | Livingston |
| April | Gordon Chisholm | Queen of the South | Stephen Dobbie | Queen of the South | Kevin Moon | St Johnstone |

## First Division play-offs
### Semi-finals

The ninth placed team in the First Division played the fourth placed team in the Second Division and third placed team in the Second Division played the second placed team in the Second Division. The play-offs were played over two legs, the winning team in each semi-final advanced to the final.
| Team 1 | Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score | Team 2 | 1st leg | 2nd leg |
| Airdrie United | 4 – 1 | Peterhead | 2–0 | 2–1 |
| Brechin City | 2 – 5 | Ayr United | 0–2 | 2–3 |
First legs
Second legs

### Final

The two semi-final winners played each other over two legs. The winning team was awarded a place in the 2009–10 First Division.
| Team 1 | Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score | Team 2 | 1st leg | 2nd leg |
| Airdrie United | 2 – 3 | Ayr United | 2–2 | 0–1 |
First leg
Second leg