St. Johnstone Football Club are the Scottish Championship Winners!
A look at St. Johnstone's eight titles and how Championship winners have fared on their return to the top flight
With last nights 0-2 victory away to Scottish Cup Finalists Dunfermline, St. Johnstone have been confirmed as Scottish Championship Winners. The Saints will be rewarded with automatic promotion to the Scottish Premiership, immediately bouncing back following the disappointment of relegation last May.
St. Johnstone have secured the league title with 71 points, with two games remaining. Even if the Saints were to lose to both Raith Rovers at home and Ayr United away, 71 points would be joint 17th out of 29 for completed 36-game second-tier seasons, since the 10-team format began in 1994/95.
If St Johnstone win their last two matches to move to 77 points, that would rank 8th for most points in the division since 1995 and would be the most since Rangers’ 81 point Championship winning campaign in 2015/16.
Despite recording 11 draws this season, St. Johnstone have been tough to beat, and have suffered only 3 defeats all season (Arbroath 3-1 St Johnstone, Partick Thistle 2-1 St Johnstone and St Johnstone 0-1 Dunfermline). The fewest defeats St Johnstone have suffered in a league season is 4, achieved in 1923/24 and 1996/97.
St Johnstone can set a club record for fewest defeats in a season if they avoid defeat in both remaining matches.
If the Saints lose one of the two remaining matches, ending the season with four defeats would be the joint 5th fewest since 1994/95. Avoiding defeat in both matches to end the season with just three losses would not only be a new St Johnstone club record but the joint 2nd-fewest in that tier since 1995, behind only Ross County in 2011/12 (1 defeat, a 5-1 loss away to Hamilton).
BOUNCE BACK PROMOTIONS
In the history of Scottish football, 62 relegated top-flight sides have come straight back up the very next season, and 41 of those did it as Champions. For St Johnstone specifically, the only previous immediate bounce-back was in 1962/63.
Since the turn of the century, St. Johnstone are the 11th side to earn immediate promotion back to the top flight, and they are the seventh side to do so since Ross County in 2018/19.
For six straight seasons, a relegated top flight side has secured immediate promotion from the second tier.
This is a joint record after the same happened in 1949-55 and 1965-1971.
ST JOHNSTONE TITLE WINS
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