Yesterday's attendance of just over 24,000 for the Scottish Cup Quarter Final between Rangers and Dundee United (currently 1st and 3rd in the SPL) got me thinking about attendances in this stage of the cup.

I researched the last 30 seasons, including this one, back to 1980/81, the figures brought up a few things that surprised me:

• only twice in the last 30 seasons have BOTH Old Firm teams been drawn at home 
• only six times in the last 20 seasons has one Old Firm team NOT been drawn at home 
• this season's attendances for the four games was better than last season's 
• last season's attendance (one Old Firm team drawn at home) was the worst equivalent since 1981/82 

It's no surprise that the mid-80s has the best attendance figures, this was back in the days when the Old Firm weren't guaranteed to win everything and teams thought they had a realistic shot at both the Scottish Cup and League.

Some notable facts:

• the highest aggregate attendance was in 1988/89 (last time both Old Firm teams drawn at home) with 105,325 watching the four games
• this pales into insignificance when you think more people than that used to watch the final alone
• Hearts were drawn at home for four seasons in a row (1983/84 - 1987/88) and attracted over 20,000 each time (Aberdeen, St Mirren, Motherwell and Dunfermline were the visitors - no Old Firm)

My next few posts will be on attendances, this was my warm up exercise, and focussed on the cup while it was fresh in my mind - I believe the graphic highlights a steady incline, with a few notable exceptions (2003/04 for example, Celtic played Rangers in the Quarter Final at Parkhead, hence the high attendance).

Note: the statistics only take into account the first game in any season, therefore excluding replays.

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Before I leave the topic of penalties, I'm having a round of the statistics by referee - let me know if you want any other areas looked into, next up for me is attendances and also going back further with the penalty research that currently only goes back to 2006/07.

For these statistics I've only included referees who have refereed 30 games or more over the time period we have, which is 13 referees.

Some headlines:

• Dougie MacDonald has given the most home penalties (11), away penalties (12) and total penalties (23) 
• Iain Brines awards the least penalties on average, only 8 in 67 games (8.38 games per penalty) 
• Mike McCurry awards the most penalties on average, 17 in 46 games (2.71 games per penalty) 
• Willie Collum's penalties get converted the most (93% - 14 of 15) 
• Kenny Clark's penalties get converted the least (50% - 3 of 6) 
• Iain Brines has never awarded a penalty to the away team (awarded 8 total, all to the home team) 

I did some additional research into whether certain referees favour certain teams, or award penalties against certain teams but there was nothing conclusive that would justify posting in an easy form, sorry!

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I felt that the Old Firm deserved a post of their own, apologies to fans of other teams but if you want a post of your own, do just ask! The highlights from the last 3+ seasons in the SPL, with regards to the Old Firm:

• Celtic have been awarded 21 penalties (11 away) 
• Rangers have been awarded 27 penalties (12 away) 
• Celtic have a 52% conversion rate 
• Rangers have a 93% conversation rate 
• Celtic have conceded 11 penalties (3 at home) 
• Rangers have conceded 11 penalties (2 at home) 
• Celtic's opposition have a 82% conversion rate 
• Rangers' opposition have a 64% conversion rate 

The conversion rates might explain some of the inconsistencies that people believe Rangers get a huge number of penalties more than everybody else, Rangers have the highest conversion rate over that period of time, while their opposition has the worst against any team.

In terms of games between the two sides, 4 penalties have been awarded in these 3+ seasons:

• 2007/08 - CELTIC v Rangers (scored)
• 2007/08 - CELTIC v Rangers (missed)
• 2007/08 - RANGERS v Celtic (scored)
• 2009/10 - Rangers v CELTIC (scored)

So the facts state that Celtic get more penalties in the Old Firm games than Rangers do - over the last 3+ seasons only.

At home, both teams don't concede a lot of penalties as noted above, however last opposition to score:

• At Parkhead: 29 April 2007 - Hearts
• At Ibrox: 4 October 2009 - Celtic

Celtic haven't had a penalty scored against them at Parkhead for almost 3 years.

Records against teams in the league:

• Celtic have been awarded most penalties against Falkirk and St Mirren (4)
• Rangers have been awarded most penalties against Kilmarnock (4)
• Celtic have conceded most penalties to Hearts (3)
• Rangers have conceded most penalties to Celtic and Kilmarnock (3)

I am looking forward to going back in time and adding the referee dimension on to these stats, do shout if I'm missing anything obvious!

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I fully intend to take the penalty statistics as far back as I can take them, firstly back to the start of the SPL, then who knows... I need help if people are interested in helping.

My statistics, for now, start at the 2006/07 season. In 2006/07:

• Motherwell were awarded the most (8) 
• Hibernian were awarded the least (1) 
• Dundee United conceded the most (10) 
• Hibernian conceded the least (1) 
• Referee Dougie McDonald awarded the most (7) 

In 2007/08:

• Hibernain were awarded the most (11)
• St Mirren and Falkirk were awarded the least (0)
• Kilmarnock conceded the most (11)
• Celtic and Motherwell conceded the least (3)
• Referee Mike McCurry awarded the most (8)

 In 2008/09:

• Rangers were awarded the most (9)
• St Mirren were awarded the least (2)
• Kilmarnock and St Mirren conceded the most (8)
• Celtic and Rangers conceded the least (2)
• Referee Calum Murray awarded the most (8)

So far this season, the penalties awarded have been down on last season and I doubt any records will be broken: Dundee United lead the way with 7 awarded (Celtic 6) and Hibernian and St Johnstone have conceded 5 each (until 28th February 2010, remember).

St Mirren have only been awarded 3 penalties in the last 2 3/4 seasons, while conceding 15 in comparison.

However, if you want to put a bet on penalties been awarded in a game, choose a Dundee United game; since the start of the 2006/07 season, United have been awarded 27 penalties (the highest overall) and have conceded 21 (the second highest - Motherwell have the highest with 27).

Referee statistics will get a post of their own, as games refereed need to be taken into account, but it's safe to say that Dougie McDonald awards the most and very strangely for 3 seasons of the 4 he's awarded more to the away team!

As with other posts, please leave a comment if you want to know any statistics that I can research and post, about penalties or otherwise - after penalties I aim to move on to attendances unless somebody comes up with a better idea!

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Following up from yesterday's post on general statistics, it's time to start delving into the specifics. The graphic below attempts to highlight the percentage of penalties each team have got, as a tree map. Next up will be percentages home and away, referee statistics and how successful teams were, some highlights:

• Aberdeen have been given most at home (16) 
• Dundee Utd most away (14) 
• Rangers converted most (25) 
• St Mirren awarded least in four seasons (6) 
• Aberdeen/St Mirren have been awarded least away (2) 
• Rangers have highest percentage converted (93%) 
• Celtic least percentage converted (52%) 
• Kilmarnock given away most at home (12) 
• Kilmarnock given away most away (15) 
• Kilmarnock given away most total (27), next Dundee United (21) 
• Motherwell given away least (10), Celtic 11, Rangers 11 
• No penalties scored against Celtic at Parkhead in last three seasons 

Let me know if there are specific stats/slices you want to see.

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Over the last few days, I have tried to piece together information on SPL penalties, after an email into the site last week.

No statistics service seems to provide this information and I also couldn't find any information in books of any kind either, so I turned to match reports available on the web.

I went back to the start of the 2006/07 SPL season, counted penalties awarded and scored, in an attempt to gather the relevant statistics to let me produce some form of data visualisation.

So the graphic (and also subsequent posts and graphics) comes with the caveat that the statistics have been gathered by hand, by reading the match reports on the web and therefore only count those reported in those reports - although you would hope that penalties awarded, scored and missed would be!

Let me know your thoughts and any statistical analysis you want from the penalties, I have them by team, by opposition, by referee, home/away, etc

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Today's final game of the 2008-09 Scottish season is the The Homecoming Scottish Cup Final between Rangers and Falkirk at Hampden Park.

Rangers are chasing their 33rd Scottish Cup victory, which would put them one behind Celtic's record 34, and Falkirk are after their third.

Rangers are also after an 18th domestic double, their 110th domestic trophy, while also trying to retain the cup they won last year by beating Queen of the South.

Walter Smith is going for his 17th trophy as Rangers manager, and if he is successful, it would also be he 4th domestic double.

There are 6 players on top of the goalscoring charts for this year's competition, two playing today, the players with 3 goals: Scott Dalziel (Stenhousemuir) Scott Arfield (Falkirk) Kenny Miller (Rangers) Ian Diack (Brechin City) Simon Lynch (Airdre United) Chris Swailes (Hamilton)

This is the 17th Scottish Cup tie between the two sides, with Rangers winning 12, drawing 3 and only losing 1 of the previous 16.

Falkirk won a Fourth Round replay in 1927, but have lost to Rangers the next 7 times the two have been drawn together, the last in 1999.

As noted in a previous blog post, the previous 3 times when Rangers beat St Mirren in the semi-final, they have went on to lose the final...

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This afternoon's potential league decider at Tannadice between Dundee United and Rangers is the 164th between the two sides.

Last year's title was won at Tannadice, by Celtic, and twice during Rangers' nine in a row run did they win the league at Tannadice - in 1990 and the last in 1998 - so bizarrely the Dundee United fans are rather used to seeing the league won there, although the one title they did win themselves back in 1983, they won just down the street at Dens Park.

Rangers have had the better of the tie both in Glasgow and in Dundee, altough they haven't won in Dundee since 2006 - United have won only 19 of the 82 ties in Dundee, and 12 of the 81 in Glasgow.

The games aren't generally high scoring affairs, with 439 goals in the 163 games to-date giving a 2.7 average, and high scoring games aren't commonplace.

Rangers have won by 6-1 (2001), 5-0 (1932) and 5-1 (1971) in Dundee, and winning 5-0 three times in Glasgow, the last in 2007.

Dundee United on the other hand have only twice won by three goals, a 3-0 in Dundee in 1978 and a 3-0 at Ibrox in 1993.

There have been 40 draws between the two sides in the League, but not many high score draws, the 3-3 draw this year at Ibrox being the highest in Glasgow, while 3-3 draws in both 2004 and 2008 in Dundee being the only times this has happened too.

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Today's vital clash between Celtic and Hearts is the 276th League meeting between the two sides.

Celtic home record in this tie if very one sided, having won 84 of the 138 home games until now, losing only 19 with 35 draws - although it was only two years ago, in April 2007 when Hearts last won in Glasgow - which is also their last win in the tie too.

The record in Edinburgh is also sided towards Celtic, but a lot closer - Celtic have 59 wins to Hearts 48, and 30 draws.

With 812 goals in the 275 games to date, this game comes in with just under a 3 goal a game average.

Celtic have had some good wins over Hearts at Parkhead, winning 6-0 twice (1908, 1981) and winning 6-1 and also 5-0 four times - Hearts best win in Glasgow was a 5-0 victory back in September 1895!

Over in Edinburgh, Hearts biggest margin of victory was a 4-0 win, while Celtic have won 5-1 and 5-1 (twice) away from home.

On 14th March 1958, at Tynecastle, the game between the two saw 8 goals in a 5-3 win for Hearts - this is the highest scoring game between the two sides.

Not many high scoring draws between the two, with 2-2 being the highest in Glasgow, and a 3-3 draw in 1907 being the highest in Edinburgh.

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Tonight's game between Ayr United and Airdrie United, is the first leg of the First Division playoff final, and is live on BBC Alba - while Cowdenbeath take on Stenhousemuir in the first leg of the Second Division playoff final.

Ayr United are trying to get back into the First Division after five years in the Second Division since there relegation after the 2003-04 season.

Airdrie United on the other hand, are playing in their third First Division playoff final in a row - having been relegated losing the final to Stirling Albion in 2006-07, and failing to go up last season when Clyde retained their First Division status by beating them in the final - only then to be promoted by way of Gretna's demise!

Airdrieonians were also denied promotion to the Premier League in 1996-97 by way of the short-lived playoff systems, when they lost over two legs to Hibs - those playoffs lasted for three years and saw one team (Dundee United) promoted while the other two times they Premier League team won over the two legs.

Cowdenbeath were relegated from the Second Division by way of the playoffs last season, and are aiming to bounce straight back - Stenhousemuir have been in the Third Division for three seasons, and failed to gain promotion by way of the playoffs in 2005-06 when they finished third but were knocked out in the first round.

This is the fourth season of the new playoffs, and while there are both supporters and detractors, there is no doubt that they will mean something for all four of these teams.

Playoffs are nothing new in Scottish football, given that the first ever season in 1890-91 went to a playoff for the league title - but since Dumbarton and Rangers drew 2-2 in the playoff, it was decided that the league should be shared.

Playoffs were also used in 1897-98, 1899-00 and 1905-06 to settle relegation from the First Division but I guess the most important playoff ever (to-date) was when Celtic won the 1904-05 league title, by beating Rangers in a playoff 2-1 - can you imagine if the teams finish even this season on points and the league suggested a playoff?

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Today's clash between Hibernian and Celtic is their 267th League meeting between the two sides.

Celtic have had the better of the clash both home and away, winning 154 times, drawing 63 times and only losing 49 times in the previous meetings.

Hibs have won one game against Celtic in each of the last three seasons, including this season - the last time they won two games against Celtic in a season was the 1992-93 season and since the 1975-76 season, where the teams play each other 4 times a year, there has never been a season when all home games have been won (which is the case so far this season).

Hibernian's biggest win over Celtic at home is 4-1, which they've done twice - in the 1902/03 season, they won 4-0 in Glasgow.

Celtic have had some high scoring wins in Edinburgh, winning 6-0, 5-0 (three times), and also 4-0 (five times).

At home, Celtic have scored 4 goals or more in 29 games - winning 6-0 three times, and hitting 7 against them in the highest scoring game between the two in the 1919/20 season, with a 7-3 win.

There has also been a 5-4 Celtic home win, and the highest scoring draw was a 4-4 in Edinburgh in January 1926.

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Today's clash at Ibrox between Rangers and Aberdeen is the 255th League meeting between the two sides.

Rangers have the edge both home and away in this fixture, winning 76 at home against 23 loses (27 draws) and also away from home with 43 wins and only 38 loses (47 draws) - in total it's 119 wins, 74 draws and 61 loses so far for the Glasgow team.

The games recently have went Rangers way, as one season apart (2005-06) Rangers have had the better of Aberdeen for most of the last 20 years - in 1987-88 Aberdeen took 3 of the 4 games.

The games are relatively high scoring, with an average of 2.66 goals a game - 680 goals in the 254 games so far - with some high scoring games: Rangers have won 4-0 at home (4 times), as well as 6-2, 5-1 and 5-2, away from home they have won 5-0 and 5-1.

Aberdeen on the other hand have also had some high scoring victories, winning 6-1, 5-1 and 4-0 (three times) in Aberdeen, while having twice won 4-2 in Glasgow.

The draws haven't been that high scoring, with the 74 draws broken down: twenty six 0-0 draws, thirty 1-1 draws, sixteen 2-2 draws and only two 3-3 draws.

With two drawn games already this season, the odds aren't on another draw - there has never been a season where the two teams have drawn 3 times in the 4 games against each other.

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Dumbarton's Third Division title this season means they become the first team in Scotland to have won league titles at all four professional league levels.

This also keeps alive the sequence of 15 different winners of the Third Division, since it's inception 15 seasons ago in 1994/95.

9 teams have won multiple promotions to the Second Division, but strangely no team has won the division twice - Forfar Athletic have won promotion three times - bizarrely winning promotion in three different positions (1st, 2nd and 3rd).

24 teams in total have played in the Third Division, the only two who have played in all 15 seasons are Albion Rovers and East Stirlingshire - Montrose have played in 14, Queen's Park 12, and Cowdenbeath 11 - Elgin City (9 seasons) and Annan Athletic (1 season) have played in every season since their inception into the league system.

East Stirlingshire have never finished higher than their 3rd place finish this season, and have a chance for their first promotion since 1979/80 - they famously finished last in the division for 5 straight seasons (2002/03 to 2006/07) and were threatened with expulsion from the division if they did so again the following season!

Four teams have been promoted in the only seasons they have played in the division, with Livingston, Hamilton and Greenock Morton winning the league in their only season - Stranraer have played in the division twice, winning it in 2003/04 and being promoted (after Gretna's demise) as runners-up in 2007/08.

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The game tonight between Hibernian and Rangers is the 267th League meeting between the two sides.

Hibernian have won at least one game against Rangers in each of the last three seasons, having not taken a point off them for the three seasons before that.

Hibs have not had the better league record in meetings between the two teams since the 1989/90 season when they won 2, lost 1 and drew one - and haven't gone undefeated against Rangers since the last time they only met twice, back in 1974/75.

There have been 764 goals in the games between the two, an average of over 2.8 goals a game, with the Rangers 10-0 win against Hibernian in 1898 they highest scoring game - they have also won 7-0 (twice), 6-0 (twice), 6-1 and 5-0 (both home and away)!

Hibs biggest win away from home was 5-2 (in 1902) and won 5-0 at home in January 1912 - the highest scoring draw was 3-3 in April 2007.

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Tonight's game between Celtic and Dundee United is the 164th League meeting between the two sides.

Celtic have had the better of Dundee Utd, both home and away, and haven't lost to United since August 1999!

That's 32 games with a win for United, during which Celtic won 21 games in a row between 1999 and late 2005.

This season there have been 3 draws between the two sides, and unless Celtic win, United will have there first season without a loss (when they've been in the same league!) since 1985/86.

United haven't won at Celtic in the league since 26th December 1992, and with Celtic fighting to go back to the top of the league, the odds aren't on anything but a Celtic win...

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Today's clash between Inverness Caledonian Thistle and Hamilton is only the 4th time that the team have ever met in the League competition.

Before this season, Caley and the Accies had never met in the League, having missed each other due to promotion/relegation similarities over the seasons.

This will be the third game in Inverness, because of the way the SPL post-split fixtures came out, and Inverness have still to win against Hamilton.

The games have been low scoring (two 1-0 victories for Hamilton, and a 1-1 draw), so expecting a lot of goals might be out the question...

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Last month, we predicted the results for 5 First Division games - getting 0 scores correct and only 1 result correct - but this hasn't put us off, and with a slight tweak to the formula used, we have come up with predictions for the last round of games in the Irn Bru First Division today - all 3pm kick offs.

These predictions are purely for fun, although there has to be some use to statistics in the archive - it's just how we extract these and use them that's the challenge.

Just to reiterate, the formula only takes the home games between the sides into account, and our predictions are in the table below:

Please leave a comment with your own predictions, and how you came about them.

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This afternoon's Old Firm derby game between Rangers and Celtic is the 292nd League meeting between the two sides - obviously the most played game in Scottish football, and the only game to be played in every season in Scottish league history.

Both teams have the better of each other at home, Rangers with 70 wins, 41 draws and 34 loses at home - Celtic with 61 wins, 42 draws and 43 loses at home.

Overall, this gives the edge to Rangers with 113 wins against Celtic's 95 wins - with 83 draws.

The game itself has significant consequences with regards to the destiny of the league title this season, but also statistically.

If Rangers fail to win, it will be the first season since 1995-96 that no home team has won one of the four league encounters - with one draw and two away wins so far this season.

Celtic took all four league games in the 2003-04 season, the same as Rangers did back in 1996-97 - both of these streaks amongst the longest either team has gone with straight victories - Celtic won 7 straight between 2003-04, eclipsing their 6 straight between 1912-14; while Rangers have won 5 straight on 3 occasions (1947-49, 1959-61 and 1996-97 including the four in one season above).

In the games during the periods between 1902-04 and 1932-34, 5 straight Old Firm games ended in draws, but otherwise sequences and dominance has been hard fought.

In the 291 games to date, there has been 802 goals between the two sides, so these games while being tight have never, at least, been dull.

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Last night's Edinburgh derby between Hearts and Hibernian was the 250th League meeting between the two sides.

Hearts failed to win any of the League games against Hibernian for the first time since the 2000-01 season, and the two points they have taken off Hibs this season is their lowest total since the 1976-77 season (in which they also took two points from the four games).

Neither team has won all 4 games (or even in the any of the 3 game seasons) in a season, the last team to win all League derby games in a season was the 1972-73 Hibernian team.

Hearts have the overall better record from the 250 games, with 108 wins against 66 loses (with 76 draws), they also have the better record both home and away - 60W-37D-28L at home, and 48W-39D-38L away.

Statistically, this is one of the most drawn derby games in Scottish football (over 30% draws) - although with 721 goals in the 250 games, it's also one of the highest scoring.

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For the second time in three seasons, Rangers take on Hearts for the third time at home, and with only victory at Ibrox in 13 seasons (May 2004) the odds seem in Rangers favour - this game is the 275th League meeting between the two sides.

Hearts haven't had the better of Rangers in a League season since 1985-86, the year Hearts lost the league on goal difference - so given this year's results so far (one win each, one draw), Hearts have the chance to achieve this.

Rangers have won the last meeting of the season between the two sides 8 of the last 9 seasons, so perhaps the odds definitely seem in Rangers favour - but then again perhaps Hearts are due a victory!

Rangers have 161 victories in the 274 ties to date, to Hearts 59 wins - this is one of the most one sided ties in the history of the Scottish game, mainly due to the number of times that the two sides have met.

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