Football in Scotland
Season2001–02
Scotland
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 Scottish 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.

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification or relegation[lower-alpha 1]
1 Celtic 38 33 4 1 94 18 +76 103 Qualification for the Champions League third qualifying round
2 Rangers 38 25 10 3 82 27 +55 85 Qualification for the UEFA Cup first round
3 Livingston 38 16 10 12 50 47 +3 58 Qualification for the UEFA Cup qualifying round[lower-alpha 2]
4 Aberdeen 38 16 7 15 51 49 +2 55
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 Relegation to the First Division
Source: Scottish Professional Football League
Rules for classification: (1) Points; (2) Goal difference; (3) Goals scored
Notes:
  1. ↑ 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.
  2. ↑ As both finalists of the 2001–02 Scottish Cup, Rangers and Celtic, qualified for European competition via their league position, the cup berth for 2002–03 UEFA Cup was passed to the next-placed team in the league, fourth-placed Aberdeen.

Scottish First Division

Pos 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 Club folded
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[lower-alpha 1] 36 10 9 17 49 73 −24 39
10 Raith Rovers 36 8 11 17 50 62 −12 35 Relegated to Second Division 2002-03
Source: "2001-2002 First Division - SPFL Archive". SPFL. Retrieved 29 April 2021.
Notes:
  1. ↑ Falkirk were reprieved from relegation due to Airdrieonians folding.

Scottish Second Division

Pos 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[lower-alpha 1] 36 14 9 13 44 45 −1 51 Club folded
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[lower-alpha 2] 36 8 12 16 33 57 −24 36
10 Greenock Morton 36 7 14 15 48 63 −15 35 Relegated to Third Division 2002–03
Source: "2001-2002 Second Division - SPFL Archive". SPFL. Retrieved 29 April 2021.
Notes:
  1. ↑ Clydebank folded at the end of the season; their place in the Scottish Football League was subsequently purchased by Airdrie United for the following season.
  2. ↑ Stenhousemuir were reprieved from relegation due to Aidrieonians folding.

Scottish Third Division

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Promotion or relegation
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 16 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 −17 40
9 Stirling Albion 36 9 10 17 45 68 −23 37
10 Queen's Park 36 9 8 19 38 53 −15 35
Source: "2001-2002 Third Division - SPFL Archive". SPFL. Retrieved 29 April 2021.

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 YearItaly Lorenzo AmorusoRangers
Young Player of the YearScotland Kevin McNaughtonAberdeen

SFWA awards

Award Player Team
Footballer of the YearScotland Paul LambertCeltic
Young Player of the YearScotland James McFaddenMotherwell
Manager of the YearNorthern Ireland Martin O'NeillCeltic

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[note 1] 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

Notes

  1. ↑ Scotland's score is shown first.

References

  1. ↑ "Scottish Football League Championship - Season 2001/02". scottishfootballleague.com. Archived from the original on 16 December 2012. Retrieved 29 July 2013.
  2. ↑ "Martin O'Neill timeline". the Guardian. 9 August 2010.
  3. ↑ Rosstheger (22 February 2010). "Old Firm Classic: Rangers 3-2 Celtic". rangers.footballblog.co.uk. Archived from the original on 2 November 2010.
  4. ↑ "Airdrie history ends here". 1 May 2002 – via news.bbc.co.uk.
  5. ↑ "Diamonds hope to sparkle again". 16 May 2002 – via news.bbc.co.uk.
  6. ↑ Panton, Gary (December 2002). "Third among equals". wsc.co.uk. Archived from the original on 5 November 2011. Retrieved 1 October 2010.
  7. ↑ "Gretna are league newcomers". 18 June 2002 – via news.bbc.co.uk.
  8. ↑ "Bankies accept their demise". 11 July 2002 – via news.bbc.co.uk.
  9. ↑ "The Only Team in The Bible". www.qosfan.co.uk.
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