Back in August, our sport experts stuck their necks out and forecast what was going to happen in 2018-19.
Predictions are not an easy business and if they were, we’d all be coining it in as Scottish football’s answer to Nostradamus.
To add an element of competition to it, we’ve tallied up everyone’s shouts and ranked our group based on how many they got spot on.
First off, all six of our contestants correctly predicted that Celtic would triumph in the Scottish Premiership and Cove Rangers would win the Highland League.
On the other side, poor Livingston seemed doomed back in August and everyone pegged them for 12th.
A strong start for Livi however, saw them confound their many critics and comfortably survive relegation.
You win some, you lose some. That’s a good theme to adopt before we end up on any end-of-season reels for calling it wrong (sorry Alloa).
Back in August, our players gave a predicted Scottish Premiership table, picked the champions of each SPFL division and the Highland League, plus picked the play-off teams in the Championship and who would be relegated from the Championship, League One and League Two.
We’ve crunched the numbers and can now tell you who was closest to calling it spot-on nine months ago.
Here’s how the scoring system works.
- Five points for a correctly predicted league winner
- Three points for a correctly predicted relegated team
- Two points for a correctly predicted play-off place
- Two points for a correctly predicted Premiership position
- One point for within one place of a correct Premiership position
Let’s see who was the P&J’s top predictor in 2018-19.
Danny Law
We’ll start with sports editor Danny Law.
Here’s a reminder of his picks:
1 – Celtic 2 – Aberdeen 3 – Rangers 4 – Hibernian 5 – Hearts 6 – Kilmarnock 7 – Motherwell 8 – St Mirren 9 – St Johnstone 10 – Dundee 11 – Hamilton 12 – Livingston
In the top flight, he earns five points for correctly picking Celtic as the league champions.
One point for Rangers (who finished 2nd), one point for Hibs (5th), one point for Hearts (6th), one point for Motherwell (8th) and one point for Hamilton (10th).
In the Championship, he claims five points for predicting a Ross County Championship title triumph and two points apiece for Caley Thistle and Dundee Utd reaching the play-offs.
Three points for correctly predicting Stenhousemuir’s relegation, five points for Peterhead’s title win and another five points for Cove Rangers winning the Highland League.
That leaves the sport team’s leader with a very respectable 32 points.
Dave Edwards
Next up, it’s veteran reporter and Highland League expert Dave Edwards.
He went for:
1 - Celtic 2 - Aberdeen 3 - Rangers 4 - Hibs 5 - Hearts 6 - Kilmarnock 7 - Motherwell 8 - Dundee 9 - St Johnstone 10 - St Mirren 11 - Hamilton 12 - Livingston
That’s five points for Celtic, one point each for Rangers (2nd), Hibs (5th), Hearts (6th), Motherwell (8th), St Mirren (11th) and Hamilton (10th).
In the Championship he gets two points for Ayr Utd making the play-offs, three points for Stenhousemuir’s relegation, five points for Peterhead’s title win and a further five for Cove Rangers.
That leaves him on 26 points.
Jamie Durent
Teesider Jamie Durent next, who went for this in the top flight:
1 - Celtic 2 - Rangers 3 - Aberdeen 4 - Hibernian 5 - Hearts 6 - Motherwell 7 - Kilmarnock 8 - St Johnstone 9 - Dundee 10 - St Mirren 11 - Livingston 12 - Hamilton
That gives him five points for Celtic, two for Rangers, one for Aberdeen (4th), one for Hibs (5th), one for Hearts (6th), one for St Johnstone (7th) and one for St Mirren (11th).
In the lower leagues, he gets five points for Ross County and two points for Caley Thistle in the play-offs.
Another three points for Stenhousemuir going down from League One, five points for Peterhead winning League Two and another three points for being the first of our team to predict Berwick Rangers at the foot of the SPFL.
Five more points for Cove’s title puts him on a team-leading 35 points.
Andy Skinner
Highland reporter Andy Skinner now, who correctly predicted 1st, 2nd, 5th and 8th in the top flight.
1 - Celtic 2 - Rangers 3 - Aberdeen 4 - Hearts 5 - Hibernian 6 - Kilmarnock 7 - Dundee 8 - Motherwell 9 - St Johnstone 10 - St Mirren 11 - Hamilton 12 - Livingston
He earns five points for Celtic, two each for Rangers, Hibs and Motherwell, one for Aberdeen (4th), St Mirren (11th) and Hamilton (10th).
In the Championship, he cleans up five points for Ross County, two apiece for Caley Thistle and Dundee Utd.
Another three points for Stenhousemuir go his way, as well as five for Peterhead, three for Berwick and five for Cove.
That makes him the new leader on 39 points.
Neil Drysdale
News and feature writer Neil Drysdale now, the only predictor who saw Dundee having a really rough ride in 2018-19.
1 - Celtic 2 - Hibs 3 - Rangers 4 - Aberdeen 5 - Hearts 6 - Kilmarnock 7 - Motherwell 8 - St Mirren 9 - St Johnstone 10 - Hamilton 11 - Dundee 12 - Livingston
He earns five points for Celtic, two for Aberdeen, two for Hamilton, one for Rangers (2nd), Hearts (6th), Motherwell (8th) and Dundee (12th).
He only earns two points for Dundee Utd in the Championship but claims five by being the first person to forecast a League One title win for Arbroath.
Five points for Peterhead and five for Cove Rangers give him a final total of 30 points.
Stuart Findlay
Having selected the scoring system, I nervously awaited the possibility of getting the most points and incurring the wrath of my colleagues.
Thankfully, bungling the bottom half of the Premiership removed that possibility.
1 - Celtic 2 - Rangers 3 - Hibs 4 - Aberdeen 5 - Hearts 6 - Motherwell 7 - Dundee 8 - Kilmarnock 9 - St Mirren 10 - St Johnstone 11 - Hamilton 12 - Livingston
I get five points for Celtic, two each for Rangers and Aberdeen, one for Hearts (6th) and Hamilton (10th).
In the Championship, it’s five points for Ross County and two for Caley Thistle.
Joining Neil as the second person to predict an Arbroath title nets another five points, plus three for Stenny’s relegation.
Five points for Peterhead and a further five for Cove Rangers leave me on a total of 36 points.
That leaves Andy Skinner as the runaway winner on 39 points.
His crystal ball proved the strongest in 2018-19, but can he repeat the trick next season?
