2013–14 Scottish Premiership: location-map with 2012-13 attendance data & 2013-14 home kit badges
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Scotland – Premiership: fixtures, results, table (soccerway.com).
From 1 August 2013, ‘SCOTTISH PREMIERSHIP 2013-2014 PREVIEW: Can anyone challenge Celtic?‘ (dailymail.co.uk/sport/football).
From When Saturday Comes.co.uk, from 14 August, by Alan Anderson, ‘Scotland’s dislike of England masks bigger problems
Enjoy chance to embarrass larger neighbours‘ (wsc.co.uk).
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Teams from Scotland playing in Europe for 2013-14 (with 12/13 Scottish Premier League finish noted):
Scotland’s very poor current UEFA coefficient holds at 24th {see this ‘UEFA coefficient/Current ranking‘ (en.wikipedia.org)}. And unless Celtic rallies from a 2-goal deficit (see next paragraph), that 24th-place coefficient will probably plummet further.
#1 – Celtic, of course, won the league title yet again in 12/13, and qualified for the 2013–14 UEFA Champions League second qualifying round, where Celtic defeated Cliftonville (of Northern Ireland) 5-0. In the UEFA Champions League third qualifying round, Celtic then defeated Elfsborg (of Sweden) 1-0 aggregate. Then in the final qualifying round before the CL Group Stage – the CL Play-off Round – Celtic were drawn to face Shakhter Karagandy (of Kazakhstan). Because their stadium in Karaganda holds only 19,000, Shakhter opted to host Celtic in the Kazakh capital-city of Astana, at the 30,000-capacity Astana Arena. The long journey, deep into central Asia, that the Celtic squad had to take to get there, seems to have taken its toll (the distance between Glasgow, Scotland and Astana, Kazakhstan is 4782 km. or 2,970 miles). In the first leg on 20 Aug. 2013, Celtic fell 2-0 to the back-to-back Kazakhstan Premier League champions, in front of a sell-out crowd of 29,950 – see this, ‘Celtic succumb to a shock defeat by Kazakhstan’s Shakhter Karagandy‘ (PA via theguardian.com/football). There has never been a Kazakhstan-based club in the UEFA Champions League Group Stage, and unless Celtic manager Neil Lennon can rally his troops, Shakhter Karagandy will become the first Kazakh side in the CL Group Stage (ie, since 92/93), as well as becoming the furthest-easternmost club to to play in the competition (Rubin Kazan of Tatarstan, Russia, who were in both the 2009-10 and 2010-11 UEFA CL Group Stages, hold that distinction, currently). Here is another article about Celtic’s CL-qualifier predicament, ‘Celtic have chance of redemption in Champions League qualifier – The board of directors have been criticised for failing to reinvest but need Neil Lennon’s current squad to deliver‘ (by Ewan Murray at theguardian.com/football/blog). [Note: Celtic did qualify for the UEFA CL Group Stage by beating Shakhter Karagandy 3-0 at Parkhead on 28 Aug.]
#2 – Motherwell finished second in 12/13 (following a 3rd place finish in 2011-12), and the Steelmen qualified for the 2013–14 UEFA Europa League third qualifying round. However, Motherwell fell to Kuban Krasnodar (of Russia), 0-3 aggregate.
#3 – St. Johnstone finished third in 12/13, despite having the lowest crowds in the league, and qualified for the 2013–14 UEFA Europa League second qualifying round. There, St. Johnstone defeated Rosenborg (of Norway) 2-1 aggregate. In the UEFA Europa League third qualifying round, St. Johnstone faced FC Minsk (of Belarus), and lost 2-3 aggregate, in penalties, to the Belarussian side.
#7 – Hibernian finished seventh in 12/13, but they qualified for the 2013–14 UEFA Europa League second qualifying round by virtue of being runners-up in the 2012-13 Scottish Cup (which was won by Celtic, who had already qualified for Europe), thus Hibernian took the spot. Hibernian then lost to Malmö (of Sweden) by the appalling score of 0-9 aggregate.
The only other club in Scotland besides Celtic that won silverware in 2012-13…
St Mirren FC, of Paisley, Renfrewshire (which is on the western-edge of Greater Glasgow), won the 2013 Scottish League Cup, defeating Heart of Midlothian 3-2, before 44,000 at Hampden Park. Congratulations to St Mirren.
Promoted and relegated in 2012-13…
Relegated: Dundee FC were relegated straight back to the second division in 12/13. No other club (such as St Mirren or Hearts) were really troubled by relegation worries as Dundee finished bottom, 13 points from safety. [Dundee had gained promotion back to the Scottish top tier for the 2012-13 season only because of Rangers' implosion in the Spring of 2012, and the Glasgow giants' subsequent banishment to the fourth division as Rangers (Newco).]
Promoted: Glasgow-based Partick Thistle won promotion to the Scottish top flight (see below).
Promoted to the Scottish Premiership for the 2013-14 season – Partick Thistle FC (their first appearance in the Scottish top flight in 9 seasons).
Partick Thistle are from NW Glasgow and are nicknamed the Jags. They wear red-and-yellow-jerseys (this season in a vertical-stripe pattern), the over-exuberance of that color-scheme being off-set by a rather dignified black-thistle-in-disc crest. Partick Thistle have won 0 Scottish titles, 1 Scottish FA Cup title (in 1921), and 1 Scottish League Cup title (in 1972). Their highest league finish was in 3rd place, which Partick Thistle did 3 times – in 1947-48, in 1953-54, and in 1962-63. From 1902-03 all the way to 1974-75, Partick Thistle were a top flight club. The modern era of Old Firm dominance in Scottish football in general and in Glaswegian football in particular has been really bad for Partick Thistle. Since the mid 1970s, Partick have played much more seasons outside the Scottish top flight, with their nadir being the 2 seasons they spent in the 3rd tier from 1998 to 2000. During the last, brief spell that Partick Thistle were in the top flight, which was a 2-season spell from 2002 to ’04, the club averaged 5,553 that initial season back in the SPL, and then 4,710 when they fell back to the second tier in 2004. Partick Thistle averaged 3,614 per game last season [2012-13], as they won the Scottish First Division comfortably (in the end), by 11 points over nearby rivals Greenock Morton. Back in the top tier for 2013-14, Partick Thistle have drawn 7,822 in their home opener versus Dundee United; then they drew 6,540 on a Friday night v. Hearts – which makes a 7,181 average gate so far. Partick Thistle will probably draw between 6 K to maybe 7.5 K per game, depending on how they do this season. They won’t have near the relegation worries one might normally expect, because Hearts have been docked 15 points for entering administration (plus being slapped with a transfer ban). If Partick Thistle do stay up this first year back, they stand a chance to possibly grow their fan base a bit, seeing as how the blue half of the Old Firm – Rangers (Newco) – still have 2 more seasons to get promoted back to the Scottish Premiership.
Below, Firhill, home of Partick Thistle, in the northwest of Glasgow in the Maryhill area (Maryhill is a former borough with a population of approximately 52,000)
Photo and Image credits above –
Photo of small badge from http://www.teamwearscotland.com/partick-thistle-replica-store/402-partick-thistle-open-t-shirt-.html.
Photo of fans arriving at Firhill fromptfc.co.uk/media/photo_galleries/match_galleries/2012-2013/partick_thistle_v_greenock_morton_10_04_13.
Aerial image [via satellite] from bing.com/maps (Bird’s Eye view).
Interior photo of Firhill by Robert Poole at flickr.com/photos/robertpool.
Exterior photo of Firhill by LordHorst at en.wikipedia.org, ‘File:Partick Thistle Firhill Stadium.JPG‘.
13/14 PTFC home kit illustration from ‘Partick Thistle F.C.‘ (en.wikipedia.org).
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Thanks to E-F-S site, for Scottish attendance figures, http://www.european-football-statistics.co.uk/attn.htm.
Thanks to the contributors to the pages at en.wikipedia.org, ‘Scottish Premiership (association football)‘.
Thanks to Celtic official site for the photo of the 2013-15 Celtic home kit badge, http://celticsuperstore.co.uk/stores/celtic/products/kit_selector.aspx?selector=288.
Thanks to Partick Thistle official site for photo of image of black-thistle-on-yellow-badge-segment, from video of 13/14 kit PTFC release, http://ptfc.co.uk/media/video/miscellaneous/2013-2014/new_strip_launch.
Thanks to Jag-mad site for League history info on Partick Thistle, http://www.partickthistle-mad.co.uk/league_history/partick_thistle/index.shtml .
