Beyond the Scoreline: Scottish Football’s Alternative Stats - 24th February
A mixture of statistics from across the SPFL - only on ScottishFootball.info!
You can view some previous editions of this feature here, here, here and here
This article only features the Premiership, and includes:
The start & end of matches
Time spent winning matches
The Half-Time league table
Last 12 matches Form table
Top goalscorers
Including the ‘deadliest duos’
Passes per game
Goalkeeper stats
Premiership Nationalities
64 represented in the top flight
How well does your team start the match?
Rangers (9) and Celtic (8) have scored the most goals in the opening 15 minutes, while Falkirk and St. Mirren have both conceded only one goal in the opening period, the best in the league. Livingston have started matches incredibly poorly across the season, conceding 12 goals in the first 15 minutes - 100% more than the next team (Dundee and Kilmarnock each conceded 6 goals).
How well does your team end the match?
Bottom club Livingston have tended to start matches poorly, but also end them that way too. They’ve conceded a league high 18 goals in the last 15 minutes, which of course includes the two goals they conceded to Rangers on Sunday. Both Old Firm clubs again lead this chart, with Rangers scoring a league high 16 in the final 15 minutes, ahead of Celtic and Hearts who have each scored 12.
Of the 12 goals Celtic have scored in this period, seven of them were match winning goals coming in the 87th minute or later. They’ve scored five winning goals in 90+ stoppage time this season, which is the highest in the division since Rangers in 2016/17 (also five). Celtic also progressed in the Scottish Cup after rescuing the tie with a 97th minute equaliser against Dundee to force extra time, meaning that in the 11 matches in all competitions where Celtic have required a late goal to win the match - they’ve scored that winning goal 8 times (73%)! It’s clear that although this Celtic squad clearly lacks the quality of previous years, they make up for it somewhat with the desire to keep attacking until the final seconds.
Points won or lost in the final 15 minutes takes the match state at 75 minutes, before calculating the points difference by full time. For example 0-0 at 75 minutes but 1-0 at full time would be 3 points won for the winning team and 1 point lost for the losing team. One of Celtic’s aforementioned stoppage time winners was an Iheanacho penalty in the 96th minute Vs Kilmarnock. Celtic were winning that match at 75 minutes though, and so as an example - it wouldn’t be captured in the below table.
Although Rangers have scored the most late goals with 16, these goals weren’t nearly as crucial as Celtic’s. While Rangers have gained an overall extra five points in the final 15 minutes, Rangers have also had 11 matches where they’ve been pushing for a winner after 85 minutes. They’ve only managed to achieve it once, Max Aarons’ 94th minute goal scored at Livingston to hand Russell Martin his only league win as manager!
When pushing for a later winner, Celtic have succeeded in 73% of matches, while Rangers have only done it once (9%).
TIME SPENT WINNING MATCHES
