2007–08 Scottish Premier League
The 2007–08 Scottish Premier League season was the tenth season of the Scottish Premier League. It began on 4 August 2007 and was originally due to end on 18 May 2008. Due to the death of Phil O'Donnell and extremely poor weather causing the postponement of fixtures during the winter, as well as a backlog of Rangers fixtures and their progression to the UEFA Cup Final, the SPL decided to move the final round of fixtures back four days to 22 May 2008. It was the first season under the sponsorship of the Clydesdale Bank.
Gretna were promoted from the First Division the previous season and played in the SPL for the first time, replacing Dunfermline Athletic. Gretna did not play at their home stadium Raydale Park as it did not meet the SPL stadia criteria of 6,000 and instead used Motherwell's Fir Park for all but one of their games; that match was at Livingston's Almondvale Stadium.
Champions Celtic qualified directly for the Champions League, while second-placed Rangers qualified for the Second qualifying round. Third-placed Motherwell qualified for the UEFA Cup and Hibernian qualified for the Intertoto Cup. First Division side Queen of the South also qualified for the UEFA Cup after reaching the Scottish Cup Final. Gretna were relegated after just one season in the SPL and were replaced by First Division champions Hamilton Academical for the following season.
The championship was determined on the final day of the season. Leaders Celtic travelled to Tannadice to play Dundee United knowing that a win would secure the title. They achieved this with a 1–0 victory following Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink's second-half header. Rangers needed to win or draw their final match of the season against Aberdeen at Pittodrie and hope that Celtic at least drew or lost respectively. But Aberdeen F.C. won the game 2-0 thanks to goals from Lee Miller and Steve Lovell.
Clubs
Promotion and Relegation from 2006–07
Promoted from First Division to Premier League- Gretna
- Dunfermline Athletic
Stadia and locations
Personnel and kits
Managerial changes
Notable events
- 29 December: Thirty-five-year-old Motherwell captain Phil O'Donnell collapsed on the pitch at Fir Park during a match against Dundee United, and died later that evening.
- 29 March: Gretna were relegated after losing 2–0 to St Mirren at Love Street.
- 19 April: Hamilton Academical won promotion to the Scottish Premier League as First Division champions following a 2–0 over Clyde.
- 22 May: Celtic won their third successive SPL title after defeating Dundee United 1–0.
- 29 May: Gretna were demoted to the Third Division after administrator David Elliot could not guarantee the Football League that the club would fulfil its fixtures next season.
- 2 June: Gretna resigned from the Scottish Football League because the administrator concluded that the club could not continue to run as a business.
League table
Results
Matches 1–22
During matches 1–22 each team played every other team twice.Matches 23–33
During matches 23–33 each team played every other team once.Matches 34–38
During matches 34–38 each team played every other team in their half of the table once.Top six
Bottom six
Goals
Top scorers
| Player | Goals | Club |
 | 25 | Celtic |
 | 15 | Celtic |
 | 14 | Rangers |
 | 14 | Motherwell |
| | 13 | Hibernian |
 | 13 | Dundee United |
| | 13 | Dundee United/Celtic |
| | 12 | Motherwell |
 | 12 | Rangers |
| | 12 | Aberdeen |
| | 11 | Kilmarnock/Hibernian |
 | 10 | Rangers |
 | 10 | Rangers |
| | 9 | Inverness CT |
| | 8 | Falkirk |
Hat-tricks
| Scorer | For | Against | Date |
| Scott McDonald | Celtic | Dundee United | 29 September 2007 |
| Clayton Donaldson | Hibernian | Kilmarnock | 29 September 2007 |
| Scott McDonald | Celtic | Motherwell | 27 October 2007 |
 Aiden McGeady | Celtic | Falkirk | 11 December 2007 |
| Barry Robson | Dundee United | Heart of Midlothian | 2 January 2008 |
| Steven Fletcher | Hibernian | Gretna | 13 February 2008 |
Kits and shirt sponsors
For the first time in the SPL, certain teams also carried secondary sponsors on the back of their jerseys, above the players' names.Attendances
As of 22 May 20081 Gretna were sharing Motherwell's stadium whilst Raydale Park was being upgraded. However, in March the Fir Park pitch was considered unplayable so the game between Gretna and Celtic was played instead at Almondvale, the home of First Division club Livingston.
Managerial changes
| Team | Outgoing manager | Manner of departure | Date of vacancy | Replaced by | Date of appointment |
| Motherwell | Maurice Malpas | Sacked | 18 June 2007 | Mark McGhee | 1 June 2007 |
| Gretna | Andy Smith | Health | 4 August 2007 | Davie Irons | 18 July 2007 |
| Heart of Midlothian |  Valdas Ivanauskas | Mutual consent | Stephen Frail &  Anatoly Korobochka | 30 July 2007 | |
| Inverness CT | Charlie Christie | Resigned | August 2007 | Craig Brewster | 27 August 2007 |
| Hibernian | John Collins | Resigned | 20 December 2007 |  Mixu Paatelainen | 10 January 2008 |
| Gretna | Davie Irons | Resigned | 19 February 2008 | Mick Wadsworth | 19 February |
| Heart of Midlothian | Stephen Frail | Mutual Consent | 27 May 2008 |  Csaba László | 11 July |
Awards
Clydesdale Bank Premier League Monthly awards
| Month | Manager | Player | Young player | Rising star |
| August | Walter Smith | Carlos Cuéllar | Steven Fletcher | Mark Staunton |
| September | John Collins |  Scott McDonald |  Andrew Driver | Scott Anson |
| October | Craig Levein | Lee Wilkie | Ross McCormack | Jack Wilson |
| November | Mark McGhee | Aiden McGeady | Ross McCormack | Liam Cusack |
| December | Craig Brewster |  Marius Niculae | Scott Arfield | — |
| January | Walter Smith | Barry Robson | Danny Grainger | — |
| February | Mixu Paatelainen |  Aiden McGeady |  Steven Fletcher | Ryan Strachan |
| March | Walter Smith | Darren Barr | Garry Kenneth | Ryan Crighton |
| April | Gordon Strachan | Barry Robson | Gary Glen | — |