2007–08 Scottish Third Division

The 2007–08 Scottish Football League Third Division was the 14th season in the format of ten teams in the fourth-tier of Scottish football. The season started on 4 August 2007 and ended on 26 April 2008. East Fife F.C. finished top and were promoted alongside Arbroath F.C. as play-off winners. Stranraer F.C. were also promoted due to Gretna being demoted to the Third Division.

Scottish Football League Third Division
Season2007–08
ChampionsEast Fife
PromotedEast Fife
Stranraer
Arbroath
Relegatedn/a
Matches played180
Goals scored526 (2.92 per match)
Biggest home winEast Fife 7–0 Stenhousemuir
(29 September 2007)
Biggest away winElgin City 0–5 Stranraer
(27 February 2008)
Highest scoringEast Stirlingshire 4–5 Albion Rovers
(8 December 2007)
Longest winning run8 games
East Fife
Longest unbeaten run11 games
Arbroath
East Fife
Longest winless run12 games
East Stirlingshire
Longest losing run10 games
East Stirlingshire

Teams for 2007–08

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Berwick Rangers as champions of the 2006–07 season were directly promoted to the 2007–08 Scottish Second Division. They were replaced by Forfar Athletic who finished bottom of the 2006–07 Scottish Second Division.

A second promotion place was available via a play-off tournament between the ninth-placed team of the 2006–07 Scottish Second Division, Stranraer, and the sides ranked second, third and fourth in the 2006–07 Scottish Third Division, Arbroath, Queen's Park and East Fife respectively. The play-off was won by Queen's Park who defeated East Fife in the final. Stranraer were therefore relegated.

Overview

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Relegated from Second Division to Third Division

Promoted from Third Division to Second Division

Stadia and attendances

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Team Stadium Capacity Highest Lowest Average
East Fife Bayview Stadium 2,000 1,300 540 769
Arbroath Gayfield Park 6,488 959 421 611
Montrose Links Park 3,292 1,470 321 597
Dumbarton Strathclyde Homes Stadium 2,025 907 258 559
Elgin City Borough Briggs 3,927 624 301 471
Stenhousemuir Ochilview Park 3,776 755 212 414
Forfar Athletic Station Park 5,177 615 270 410
East Stirlingshire Firs Park 1,800 791 235 377
Albion Rovers Cliftonhill 1,249 512 186 307
Stranraer Stair Park 5,600 487 117 255

Source: The League Insider

Managerial changes

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Team Outgoing manager Manner of departure Date of vacancy Replaced by Date of appointment
Stenhousemuir   Campbell Money Resigned 29 September 2007   John Coughlin 12 October 2007
Ayr United   Neil Watt Resigned 23 October 2007   Brian Reid 24 October 2007
Dumbarton   Gerry McCabe Sacked 11 November 2007   Jim Chapman 31 December 2007
East Stirlingshire   Gordon Wylde Resigned 28 February 2008   Jim McInally 13 March 2008
Forfar Athletic   Jim Moffat Mutual consent 21 April[1]   Dick Campbell 8 May[2]
Berwick Rangers   Michael Renwick Sacked 28 February[3]   Allan McGonigal 13 May[4]

Table

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Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Promotion or qualification
1 East Fife (C, P) 36 28 4 4 77 24 +53 88 Promotion to the Second Division
2 Stranraer[a] (P) 36 19 8 9 65 43 +22 65 Qualification for the Second Division Play-offs[b]
3 Montrose 36 17 8 11 59 36 +23 59
4 Arbroath (P, O) 36 14 10 12 54 47 +7 52
5 Stenhousemuir 36 13 9 14 50 59 −9 48
6 Elgin City 36 13 8 15 56 68 −12 47
7 Albion Rovers 36 9 10 17 51 68 −17 37
8 Dumbarton 36 9 10 17 31 48 −17 37
9 East Stirlingshire[c] 36 10 4 22 48 71 −23 34
10 Forfar Athletic 36 8 9 19 35 62 −27 33
Source: SPFL archive
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
(C) Champions; (O) Play-off winners; (P) Promoted
Notes:
  1. ^ Stranraer won promotion to Second Division after Gretna were relegated to the Third Division.
  2. ^ The 9th placed Second Division team were entered into a play-off with the Third Division's 2nd, 3rd and 4th placed teams. The winning team were awarded a place in the 2008–09 Second Division, Cowdenbeath were relegated and Arbroath were promoted. With Gretna being relegated to the Third Division, Stranraer were also promoted.
  3. ^ Had East Stirlingshire finished bottom of the table for what would have been a sixth consecutive time, they would have lost their Scottish Football League status, they finished second bottom.[citation needed]

Results

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Teams play each other four times in this league. In the first half of the season each team plays every other team twice (home and away) and then do the same in the second half of the season.

First half of season

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Home \ Away ALB ARB DUM EFI EST ELG FOR MON STE STR
Albion Rovers 5–2 2–0 1–4 2–3 3–4 2–1 1–3 1–1 3–2
Arbroath 1–0 1–1 2–3 2–0 4–0 3–4 0–0 2–2 2–2
Dumbarton 2–0 1–1 1–1 3–1 1–0 0–0 1–3 1–2 0–2
East Fife 4–0 0–2 2–0 3–1 4–0 3–0 2–0 7–0 3–1
East Stirlingshire 4–5 2–3 3–2 0–2 3–1 2–1 0–3 1–1 2–3
Elgin City 3–2 1–3 2–1 2–3 6–0 2–2 0–2 2–0 0–5
Forfar Athletic 1–0 1–3 3–1 0–2 0–2 4–0 1–4 0–1 1–1
Montrose 0–1 3–3 0–1 3–1 3–1 0–0 0–1 1–0 2–4
Stenhousemuir 0–1 1–0 2–1 2–1 0–3 2–3 4–0 0–4 1–4
Stranraer 3–1 1–1 2–0 0–2 2–1 3–3 3–0 1–0 2–3
Source: BBC Sport
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Second half of season

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Home \ Away ALB ARB DUM EFI EST ELG FOR MON STE STR
Albion Rovers 0–2 0–1 2–2 2–2 1–1 0–0 0–3 3–3 1–1
Arbroath 1–4 0–0 0–1 0–1 2–0 1–1 2–1 1–0 0–0
Dumbarton 2–0 2–1 0–3 1–0 1–4 0–0 0–0 1–0 0–1
East Fife 0–0 2–1 2–1 1–0 2–0 3–0 0–0 0–1 2–1
East Stirlingshire 3–0 0–1 1–1 0–3 0–0 4–1 3–1 3–4 1–3
Elgin City 1–1 2–1 2–1 1–2 3–0 3–1 2–1 1–5 2–3
Forfar Athletic 1–4 1–0 1–1 2–3 1–0 0–1 1–1 1–2 1–0
Montrose 2–1 5–0 3–1 0–1 2–0 3–2 2–2 2–1 0–2
Stenhousemuir 2–2 0–3 1–1 0–1 3–0 2–2 2–0 0–0 1–1
Stranraer 3–0 0–3 2–0 0–2 2–1 0–0 2–1 0–2 3–1
Updated to match(es) played on 27 April. Source: BBC Sport
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Top scorers

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Scorer Goals Team
  John Baird 18 Montrose
  Paul McManus 17 East Fife
  Michael Mullen 13 Stranraer
  Roddy Hunter 12 Montrose
  Darren Shallicker Elgin City
  Andrew Brand 11 East Stirlingshire
  John Gemmell Albion Rovers
  Brian Scott Arbroath
  Gregory Tade Stranraer
  Joseph Savage 10 East Stirlingshire
  Kenny Wright Albion Rovers
  Scott Dalziel 9 Stenhousemuir
  William Martin 8 Albion Rovers
  Barry Sellars Arbroath
  Douglas Cameron East Fife
  Greig McDonald 7 East Fife

Source: The League Insider

Events

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Monthly awards

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Month Third Division manager SFL Player SFL Young player
August   Gordon Wylde (East Stirlingshire) First Division player First Division player
September   John McGlashan (Arbroath) Second Division player First Division player
October   David Baikie (East Fife) First Division player First Division player
November   David Baikie (East Fife) First Division player   Scott Fox (East Fife)
December   Gerry Britton (Stranraer) Second Division player First Division player
January   David Baikie (East Fife) Second Division player First Division player
February   Derek Ferguson (Stranraer) First Division player First Division player
March   Robbie Williamson (Elgin City) First Division player First Division player
April   Derek Ferguson (Stranraer) First Division player First Division player

Second Division play-offs

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References

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  1. ^ "Forfar exit for manager Moffat". BBC Sport website. 21 April 2008. Archived from the original on 27 April 2008. Retrieved 23 April 2008.
  2. ^ "Campbell takes the helm at Forfar". BBC Sport. 8 May 2008. Retrieved 8 May 2008.
  3. ^ "Berwick part company with Renwick". BBC Sport website. 21 April 2008. Archived from the original on 26 April 2008. Retrieved 23 April 2008.
  4. ^ "McGonigal takes over at Berwick". BBC Sport. 8 May 2008. Archived from the original on 17 May 2008. Retrieved 13 May 2008.
  5. ^ "East Stirlingshire 0–3 East Fife". BBC Sport. 1 June 2007. Retrieved 23 May 2008.
  6. ^ "Berwick Rangers 2–2 Peterhead". BBC Sport. 28 March 2008. Retrieved 29 April 2008.
  7. ^ "Stranraer 1–0 Arbroath (1–2)". BBC Sport. 10 May 2008. Archived from the original on 13 May 2008. Retrieved 22 May 2008.
  8. ^ "Gretna demoted to Division Three". BBC Sport. 29 May 2008. Retrieved 29 May 2008.