# 2006–07 Scottish Premier League

The 2006–07 Scottish Premier League season was the ninth season of the Scottish Premier League. It began on 29 July 2006.
The league champions, Celtic and runners-up, Rangers, qualified for the UEFA Champions League on the return of Walter Smith as manager following a brief and disastrous reign by Frenchman Paul Le Guen. The team finishing third, Aberdeen qualified for the UEFA Cup, as did the Scottish Cup finalists Dunfermline Athletic. However, being the bottom-placed team in the SPL, Dunfermline were also relegated to the First Division.

## Teams
### Promotion and relegation from 2005–06

Promoted from First Division to Premier League
* St Mirren
Relegated from Premier League to First Division
* Livingston

### Stadia and locations

| Aberdeen | Celtic | Dundee United | Dunfermline Athletic |
| Pittodrie Stadium | Celtic Park | Tannadice Park | East End Park |
| Capacity: 20,866 | Capacity: 60,411 | Capacity: 14,223 | Capacity: 12,509 |
| Falkirk | AberdeenDundee UnitedDunfermline AthleticFalkirkHeartsHibernianInverness Caledonian ThistleKilmarnockRangersSt MirrenCeltic Motherwellclass=notpageimage| Location of teams in 2006–07 Scottish Premier League | AberdeenDundee UnitedDunfermline AthleticFalkirkHeartsHibernianInverness Caledonian ThistleKilmarnockRangersSt MirrenCeltic Motherwellclass=notpageimage| Location of teams in 2006–07 Scottish Premier League | Heart of Midlothian |
| Falkirk Stadium | AberdeenDundee UnitedDunfermline AthleticFalkirkHeartsHibernianInverness Caledonian ThistleKilmarnockRangersSt MirrenCeltic Motherwellclass=notpageimage| Location of teams in 2006–07 Scottish Premier League | AberdeenDundee UnitedDunfermline AthleticFalkirkHeartsHibernianInverness Caledonian ThistleKilmarnockRangersSt MirrenCeltic Motherwellclass=notpageimage| Location of teams in 2006–07 Scottish Premier League | Tynecastle Park |
| Capacity: 7,937 | AberdeenDundee UnitedDunfermline AthleticFalkirkHeartsHibernianInverness Caledonian ThistleKilmarnockRangersSt MirrenCeltic Motherwellclass=notpageimage| Location of teams in 2006–07 Scottish Premier League | AberdeenDundee UnitedDunfermline AthleticFalkirkHeartsHibernianInverness Caledonian ThistleKilmarnockRangersSt MirrenCeltic Motherwellclass=notpageimage| Location of teams in 2006–07 Scottish Premier League | Capacity: 17,420 |
| Hibernian | AberdeenDundee UnitedDunfermline AthleticFalkirkHeartsHibernianInverness Caledonian ThistleKilmarnockRangersSt MirrenCeltic Motherwellclass=notpageimage| Location of teams in 2006–07 Scottish Premier League | AberdeenDundee UnitedDunfermline AthleticFalkirkHeartsHibernianInverness Caledonian ThistleKilmarnockRangersSt MirrenCeltic Motherwellclass=notpageimage| Location of teams in 2006–07 Scottish Premier League | Inverness Caledonian Thistle |
| Easter Road | AberdeenDundee UnitedDunfermline AthleticFalkirkHeartsHibernianInverness Caledonian ThistleKilmarnockRangersSt MirrenCeltic Motherwellclass=notpageimage| Location of teams in 2006–07 Scottish Premier League | AberdeenDundee UnitedDunfermline AthleticFalkirkHeartsHibernianInverness Caledonian ThistleKilmarnockRangersSt MirrenCeltic Motherwellclass=notpageimage| Location of teams in 2006–07 Scottish Premier League | Caledonian Stadium |
| Capacity: 16,531 | AberdeenDundee UnitedDunfermline AthleticFalkirkHeartsHibernianInverness Caledonian ThistleKilmarnockRangersSt MirrenCeltic Motherwellclass=notpageimage| Location of teams in 2006–07 Scottish Premier League | AberdeenDundee UnitedDunfermline AthleticFalkirkHeartsHibernianInverness Caledonian ThistleKilmarnockRangersSt MirrenCeltic Motherwellclass=notpageimage| Location of teams in 2006–07 Scottish Premier League | Capacity: 7,500 |
| Kilmarnock | Motherwell | Rangers | St Mirren |
| Rugby Park | Fir Park | Ibrox Stadium | Love Street |
| Capacity: 17,889 | Capacity: 13,677 | Capacity: 50,817 | Capacity: 10,800 |

### Personnel

| Team | Manager |
| Aberdeen | Jimmy Calderwood |
| Celtic | Gordon Strachan |
| Dundee United | Craig Levein |
| Dunfermline Athletic | Stephen Kenny |
| Falkirk | John Hughes |
| Heart of Midlothian | Anatoliy Korobochka |
| Hibernian | John Collins |
| Inverness Caledonian Thistle | Charlie Christie |
| Kilmarnock | Jim Jefferies |
| Motherwell | Maurice Malpas |
| Rangers | Walter Smith |
| St Mirren | Gus MacPherson |

#### Managerial changes

| Team | Outgoing manager | Date of vacancy | Manner of departure | Position in table | Incoming manager | Date of appointment |
| Rangers | Alex McLeish | 8 May 2006 | Sacked | Pre-season | Paul Le Guen | 9 May 2006 |
| Motherwell | Terry Butcher | 17 May 2006 | Signed by Sydney FC | Pre-season | Maurice Malpas | 17 May 2006 |
| Hibernian | Tony Mowbray | 13 October 2006 | Signed by West Bromwich Albion | 7th | John Collins | 31 October 2006 |
| Dunfermline Athletic | Jim Leishman | 26 October 2006 | Became Director of Football | 11th | Stephen Kenny | 10 November 2006 |
| Dundee United | Craig Brewster | 29 October 2006 | Sacked | 12th | Craig Levein | 30 October 2006 |
| Rangers | Paul Le Guen | 4 January 2007 | Mutual consent | 2nd | Walter Smith | 10 January 2007 |
| Heart of Midlothian | Valdas Ivanauskas | 20 March 2007 | Mutual consent | 4th | Anatoliy Korobochka | 20 March 2007 (caretaker) 30 July 2007 (permanent) |

## Events

* On 22 April 2007 Celtic beat Kilmarnock 2–1 to win the title for the second season running thanks to goals from Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink and Shunsuke Nakamura who scored a free-kick in the dying second of the match to clinch the title for Celtic
* On 12 May 2007 Dunfermline Athletic were relegated to the First Division after a 2–1 defeat at Inverness CT and St Mirren came back from 2–0 down to win 3–2 at Motherwell.
* On 20 May 2007 Aberdeen beat Rangers 2–0 at home in their final game of the season to qualify for the UEFA Cup.
* For the second consecutive season, the top scorer was Kris Boyd of Rangers, with 20 goals.

## League table

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification or relegation |
| 1 | Celtic (C) | 38 | 26 | 6 | 6 | 65 | 34 | +31 | 84 | Qualification for the Champions League third qualifying round |
| 2 | Rangers | 38 | 21 | 9 | 8 | 61 | 32 | +29 | 72 | Qualification for the Champions League second qualifying round |
| 3 | Aberdeen | 38 | 19 | 8 | 11 | 55 | 38 | +17 | 65 | Qualification for the UEFA Cup first round |
| 4 | Heart of Midlothian | 38 | 17 | 10 | 11 | 47 | 35 | +12 | 61 | |
| 5 | Kilmarnock | 38 | 16 | 7 | 15 | 47 | 54 | −7 | 55 | |
| 6 | Hibernian | 38 | 13 | 10 | 15 | 56 | 46 | +10 | 49 | |
| 7 | Falkirk | 38 | 15 | 5 | 18 | 49 | 47 | +2 | 50 | |
| 8 | Inverness Caledonian Thistle | 38 | 11 | 13 | 14 | 42 | 48 | −6 | 46 | |
| 9 | Dundee United | 38 | 10 | 12 | 16 | 40 | 59 | −19 | 42 | |
| 10 | Motherwell | 38 | 10 | 8 | 20 | 41 | 61 | −20 | 38 | |
| 11 | St Mirren | 38 | 8 | 12 | 18 | 31 | 51 | −20 | 36 | |
| 12 | Dunfermline Athletic (R) | 38 | 8 | 8 | 22 | 26 | 55 | −29 | 32 | Relegation to the Scottish First Division and qualification for UEFA Cup second qualifying round |
* ↑ Teams played each other three times (33 matches), before the league split into two groups (the top six and the bottom six) for the last five matches.
* ↑ As Celtic, the Scottish Cup winners, qualified for the Champions League via their league position, the place in the UEFA Cup was passed to Dunfermline Athletic, the cup runner-up.

## Results
### Matches 1–22

During matches 1–22 each team played every other team twice (home and away).
| Home \ Away | ABE | CEL | DUN | DNF | FAL | HOM | HIB | INV | KIL | MOT | RAN | STM |
| Aberdeen | | 0–1 | 3–1 | 1–0 | 2–1 | 1–3 | 2–1 | 1–1 | 3–1 | 2–1 | 1–2 | 2–0 |
| Celtic | 1–0 | | 2–2 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 2–1 | 2–1 | 3–0 | 4–1 | 2–1 | 2–0 | 2–0 |
| Dundee United | 3–1 | 1–4 | | 0–0 | 1–2 | 0–1 | 0–3 | 3–1 | 1–0 | 1–1 | 2–1 | 1–0 |
| Dunfermline Athletic | 0–3 | 1–2 | 2–1 | | 0–3 | 1–2 | 0–4 | 0–0 | 3–2 | 0–2 | 1–1 | 2–1 |
| Falkirk | 0–2 | 0–1 | 5–1 | 1–0 | | 1–1 | 2–1 | 3–1 | 1–2 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 1–1 |
| Heart of Midlothian | 0–1 | 2–1 | 4–0 | 1–1 | 0–0 | | 3–1 | 4–1 | 0–2 | 4–1 | 0–1 | 0–1 |
| Hibernian | 1–1 | 2–2 | 2–1 | 2–0 | 0–1 | 2–2 | | 2–0 | 2–2 | 3–1 | 2–1 | 5–1 |
| Inverness Caledonian Thistle | 1–1 | 1–1 | 0–0 | 1–0 | 3–2 | 0–0 | 0–0 | | 3–4 | 0–1 | 2–1 | 1–2 |
| Kilmarnock | 1–0 | 1–2 | 0–0 | 5–1 | 2–1 | 0–0 | 2–1 | 1–1 | | 1–2 | 2–2 | 1–1 |
| Motherwell | 0–2 | 1–1 | 2–3 | 2–1 | 4–2 | 0–1 | 1–6 | 1–4 | 5–0 | | 1–2 | 0–0 |
| Rangers | 1–0 | 1–1 | 2–2 | 2–0 | 4–0 | 2–0 | 3–0 | 0–1 | 3–0 | 1–1 | | 1–1 |
| St Mirren | 1–1 | 1–3 | 1–3 | 0–0 | 1–0 | 2–2 | 1–0 | 1–1 | 0–1 | 2–0 | 2–3 | |

### Matches 23–33

During matches 23–33 each team played every other team once (either at home or away).
| Home \ Away | ABE | CEL | DUN | DNF | FAL | HOM | HIB | INV | KIL | MOT | RAN | STM |
| Aberdeen | | 1–2 | 2–4 | 3–0 | | 1–0 | | 1–1 | | | | |
| Celtic | | | | 2–1 | | | 2–1 | | 4–0 | 2–0 | 0–1 | 3–1 |
| Dundee United | | 0–3 | | 0–0 | 1–5 | | 0–0 | | | 1–1 | | |
| Dunfermline Athletic | | | | | | 0–1 | 1–0 | | 1–1 | | 0–1 | 0–0 |
| Falkirk | 1–2 | 1–0 | | 1–0 | | | | | 0–2 | 1–2 | | 2–1 |
| Heart of Midlothian | | 1–4 | 0–4 | | 1–0 | | | 1–0 | 1–0 | | | 1–1 |
| Hibernian | 0–0 | | | | 2–0 | 0–1 | | | | 2–0 | 0–2 | |
| Inverness Caledonian Thistle | | 1–2 | 1–0 | 1–3 | 1–1 | | 3–0 | | | | | 2–1 |
| Kilmarnock | 1–2 | | 1–0 | | | | 0–2 | 3–2 | | | 1–3 | |
| Motherwell | 0–2 | | | 2–0 | | 0–2 | | 1–0 | 0–1 | | 0–1 | |
| Rangers | 3–0 | | 5–0 | | 2–1 | 0–0 | | 1–1 | | | | |
| St Mirren | 0–2 | | 0–1 | | | | 1–1 | | 0–2 | 0–0 | 0–1 | |

### Matches 34–38

During matches 34–38 each team played every other team in their half of the table once.

## Goals
### Top scorers

| Scorer | Team | Appearances | Goals | Average |
| Kris Boyd | Rangers | 32 | 20 | 0.63 |
| Scott McDonald | Motherwell | 32 | 15 | 0.47 |
| Steven Naismith | Kilmarnock | 37 | 15 | 0.41 |
| Anthony Stokes | Falkirk | 16 | 14 | 0.86 |
| Chris Killen | Hibernian | 18 | 13 | 0.72 |
| Darren Mackie | Aberdeen | 36 | 13 | 0.36 |
| Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink | Celtic | 21 | 13 | 0.62 |
| Colin Nish | Kilmarnock | 33 | 12 | 0.36 |
| Charlie Adam | Rangers | 32 | 11 | 0.34 |
| Barry Robson | Dundee United | 29 | 11 | 0.38 |
| John Sutton | St Mirren | 33 | 11 | 0.33 |
| Craig Dargo | Inverness CT | 27 | 10 | 0.37 |
| Noel Hunt | Dundee United | 28 | 10 | 0.36 |
| Steve Lovell | Aberdeen | 27 | 9 | 0.33 |
| Shunsuke Nakamura | Celtic | 37 | 9 | 0.24 |
| Andrius Velicka | Heart of Midlothian | 27 | 8 | 0.30 |

### Hat-tricks

| Scorer | For | Against | Date |
| Shunsuke Nakamura | Celtic | Dundee United | 14 October 2006 |
| Anthony Stokes | Falkirk | Dundee United | 28 October 2006 |
| Anthony Stokes | Falkirk | Dunfermline Athletic | 4 November 2006 |
| Thomas Gravesen | Celtic | St Mirren | 12 November 2006 |
| Anthony Stokes | Falkirk | Inverness CT | 30 December 2006 |
| Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink | Celtic | St Mirren | 20 January 2007 |
| Kris Boyd | Rangers | Kilmarnock | 11 February 2007 |
| Kris Boyd | Rangers | Aberdeen | 17 March 2007 |
| Barry Robson | Dundee United | Heart of Midlothian | 17 March 2007 |

## Attendances

Overall 3.7 million spectators attended an average per match of just over 8,090. The average and highest attendances for SPL clubs during the 2006/07 season are shown below:
| Club | Average | Highest |
| Celtic | 57,928 | 59,659 |
| Rangers | 49,955 | 50,488 |
| Hearts | 16,937 | 17,369 |
| Hibernian | 14,587 | 16,747 |
| Aberdeen | 12,475 | 20,045 |
| Dundee United | 7,147 | 12,329 |
| Kilmarnock | 6,807 | 13,506 |
| Dunfermline Athletic | 6,106 | 8,561 |
| Motherwell | 5,877 | 11,745 |
| St Mirren | 5,609 | 10,251 |
| Falkirk | 5,387 | 7,245 |
| Inverness CT | 4,879 | 7,522 |
Source: SPL official website

## Monthly awards

| Month | Manager | Player | Young Player |
| August | Jim Jefferies (Kilmarnock) | Russell Latapy (Falkirk) | Aiden McGeady (Celtic) |
| September | Gordon Strachan (Celtic) | Allan McGregor (Rangers) | Aiden McGeady (Celtic) |
| October | Charlie Christie (Inverness CT) | Lee Naylor (Celtic) | Anthony Stokes (Falkirk) |
| November | Craig Levein (Dundee United) | Russell Anderson (Aberdeen) | Anthony Stokes (Falkirk) |
| December | John Hughes (Falkirk) | Artur Boruc (Celtic) | Darren Barr (Falkirk) |
| January | Gordon Strachan (Celtic) | Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink (Celtic) | Christophe Berra (Hearts) |
| February | Maurice Malpas (Motherwell) | Shunsuke Nakamura (Celtic) | Lewis Stevenson (Hibernian) |
| March | Craig Levein (Dundee United) | Alan Hutton (Rangers) | Steven Naismith (Kilmarnock) |
| April | Stephen Kenny (Dunfermline Athletic) | Neil Lennon (Celtic) | Mark Reynolds (Motherwell) |