2016–17 Scottish League Two

Football league season

Scottish League Two
Season	2016–17
Champions	Arbroath
Promoted	Arbroath Forfar Athletic
Matches played	180
Goals scored	531 (2.95 per match)
Top goalscorer	Shane Sutherland (18 goals)^[1]^[2]
Biggest home win	Elgin City 6–0 Berwick Rangers^[3] (10 December 2016)
Biggest away win	Montrose 0–5 Elgin City^[3] (15 October 2016)
Highest scoring	Arbroath 5–3 Stirling Albion^[3] (27 August 2016) Clyde 5–3 Cowdenbeath^[3] (27 August 2016)
Longest winning run	7 matches:^[3] Forfar Athletic
Longest unbeaten run	10 matches:^[3] Forfar Athletic
Longest winless run	14 matches:^[3] Clyde
Longest losing run	7 matches:^[3] Cowdenbeath
Highest attendance	1,748^[3] Arbroath 1–1 Stirling Albion^[3] (6 May 2017)
Lowest attendance	241^[3] Annan Athletic 2–0 Cowdenbeath^[3] (10 December 2016)
Total attendance	96,248^[3]
Average attendance	537^[3] (18^[4])
← 2015–16 2017–18 → All statistics correct as of 7 May 2017.

The 2016–17 Scottish League Two (known as Ladbrokes League Two for sponsorship reasons) was the 23rd season in the current format of 10 teams in the fourth-tier of Scottish football. The last placed team (Cowdenbeath) entered a play-off with a team nominated by the Scottish Football Association from outside the SPFL (East Kilbride), to determine which team entered League Two in the 2017–18 season.^[5] The fixtures were published on 17 June 2016.^[6]

Ten teams contested the league: Annan Athletic, Arbroath, Berwick Rangers, Clyde, Cowdenbeath, Edinburgh City, Elgin City, Forfar Athletic, Montrose and Stirling Albion. Arbroath won the league and were promoted, while Forfar were also promoted via the League One play-offs.

Teams

The following teams changed division since the 2015–16 season.

To League Two

Promoted from Lowland Football League

Edinburgh City

Relegated from Scottish League One

From League Two

Relegated to Lowland Football League

East Stirlingshire

Promoted to Scottish League One

Stadia and locations

Annan Athletic	Arbroath	Berwick Rangers	Clyde
Galabank	Gayfield Park	Shielfield Park	Broadwood Stadium
Capacity: 2,504^[7]	Capacity: 6,600^[8]	Capacity: 4,099^[9]	Capacity: 8,086^[10]

Cowdenbeath	Annan Athletic Arbroath Berwick Rangers Clyde Cowdenbeath Edinburgh City Elgin City Forfar Athletic Montrose Stirling Albion 2016–17 Scottish League Two (Scotland)		Edinburgh City
Central Park			Meadowbank Stadium
Capacity: 4,309^[11]			Capacity: 5,000^[12]

Elgin City	Forfar Athletic	Montrose	Stirling Albion
Borough Briggs	Station Park	Links Park	Forthbank Stadium
Capacity: 4,520^[13]	Capacity: 6,777^[14]	Capacity: 4,936^[15]	Capacity: 3,808^[16]

Personnel and kits

Team	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
Annan Athletic	Jim Chapman	Steven Black	Stanno	M&S Engineering Ltd
Arbroath	Dick Campbell	Mark Whatley	Pendle	Megatech
Berwick Rangers	John Coughlin	Jordyn Sheerin	Zoo Sport	Simple Energy Scotland Ltd
Clyde	Jon-Paul McGovern & Peter MacDonald (joint interim)	Scott Ferguson	Hummel	Advance Construction Group (H), Heartfelt Limited (A)
Cowdenbeath	Gary Locke	David McGurn	Uhlsport	Subsea Pressure Controls
Edinburgh City	Gary Jardine	Dougie Gair	Joma	Hutchinson Networks
Elgin City	Jim Weir	Archie MacPhee	EC 1893	McDonald & Munro
Forfar Athletic	Gary Bollan	David Cox	Pendle	Orchard Timber Products
Montrose	Stewart Petrie	Paul Watson	Nike	Intervention Rentals
Stirling Albion	Dave Mackay	Ross McMillan	Macron	Prudential

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Cowdenbeath	Colin Nish	Sacked	12 May 2016^[17]	Pre-season	Liam Fox	23 May 2016^[17]
Stirling Albion	Stuart McLaren	Sacked	24 September 2016^[18]	9th	Martyn Corrigan (caretaker)	24 September 2016^[18]
Stirling Albion	Martyn Corrigan (caretaker)	Stepped down	5 November 2016^[19]	7th	Dave Mackay	9 November 2016^[20]
Montrose	Paul Hegarty	Sacked	16 November 2016^[21]	9th	John Holt (caretaker)	16 November 2016^[21]
Montrose	John Holt (caretaker)	Interim ended	4 December 2016^[22]	10th	Stewart Petrie	4 December 2016^[22]
Clyde	Barry Ferguson	Resigned	26 February 2017^[23]	8th	Bob Malcolm (interim)	26 February 2017^[24]
Clyde	Bob Malcolm (interim)	Interim ended	2 March 2017^[25]	9th	Jon-Paul McGovern & Peter MacDonald (joint interim)	2 March 2017^[25]
Cowdenbeath	Liam Fox	Resigned	6 March 2017^[26]	10th	Gary Locke	10 March 2017^[27]

League summary

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion, qualification or relegation
1	Arbroath (C, P)	36	18	12	6	63	36	+27	66	Promotion to League One
2	Forfar Athletic (O, P)	36	18	10	8	69	49	+20	64	Qualification to League One play-offs
3	Annan Athletic	36	18	4	14	61	58	+3	58
4	Montrose	36	14	10	12	44	53	−9	52
5	Elgin City	36	14	9	13	67	47	+20	51
6	Stirling Albion	36	12	11	13	50	59	−9	47
7	Edinburgh City	36	11	10	15	38	45	−7	43
8	Berwick Rangers	36	10	10	16	50	65	−15	40
9	Clyde	36	10	8	18	49	64	−15	38
10	Cowdenbeath (O)	36	9	8	19	40	55	−15	35	Qualification to League Two play-off finals

Source: BBC Sport
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Number of goals scored
(C) Champions; (O) Play-off winners; (P) Promoted

Positions by round

Updated to match(es) played on 7 May 2017. Source: ^{[citation needed]}

Results

Teams play each other four times, twice in the first half of the season (home and away) and twice in the second half of the season (home and away), making a total of 36 games.

First half of season

Home \ Away	ANN	ARB	BER	CLY	COW	EDC	ELG	FOR	MON	STI
Annan Athletic		1–2	3–1	3–2	2–0	1–1	1–0	1–2	2–3	3–2
Arbroath	1–1		1–1	4–0	0–0	0–1	3–2	2–0	0–0	5–3
Berwick Rangers	2–0	1–1		1–1	1–1	1–3	2–4	1–2	1–2	3–2
Clyde	2–3	3–2	3–2		5–3	0–0	2–1	0–1	2–1	1–1
Cowdenbeath	2–2	0–2	0–2	1–0		2–0	0–1	3–4	2–0	0–2
Edinburgh City	1–0	3–3	1–2	0–1	1–1		1–2	2–3	0–1	2–0
Elgin City	0–2	0–1	6–0	0–2	3–1	3–0		2–2	4–1	2–3
Forfar Athletic	5–1	0–1	2–0	4–3	4–3	1–1	3–2		1–3	4–1
Montrose	2–2	1–1	0–0	2–1	1–2	0–1	0–5	1–1		2–2
Stirling Albion	3–1	2–2	0–0	1–1	1–2	1–1	0–4	0–3	2–0

Updated to match(es) played on 2 January 2017. Source: Scottish League 2
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Second half of season

Home \ Away	ANN	ARB	BER	CLY	COW	EDC	ELG	FOR	MON	STI
Annan Athletic		2–5	2–1	1–0	1–0	1–0	1–0	1–2	5–1	4–1
Arbroath	1–2		4–1	1–0	4–1	0–1	3–2	0–1	0–1	1–1
Berwick Rangers	4–1	0–2		4–3	1–3	3–2	0–1	3–2	0–1	0–1
Clyde	2–1	1–2	1–1		0–2	3–1	3–2	2–2	1–2	2–3
Cowdenbeath	0–1	1–2	0–1	1–0		1–2	1–1	1–1	0–2	0–2
Edinburgh City	2–0	0–2	2–2	0–0	1–1		3–0	0–1	1–1	1–0
Elgin City	3–2	0–0	2–2	4–1	0–0	3–1		1–1	1–1	2–2
Forfar Athletic	2–4	1–1	2–3	3–0	3–1	1–2	1–1		0–0	1–1
Montrose	2–3	1–3	2–1	1–1	2–1	3–0	0–3	1–0		1–3
Stirling Albion	1–0	1–1	2–2	3–0	0–3	1–0	1–0	0–3	1–2

Updated to match(es) played on 6 May 2017. Source: Scottish League 2
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Season statistics

Scoring

Top scorers

As of matches played on 6 May 2017

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Shane Sutherland	Elgin City	18
2	Peter MacDonald	Clyde	17
3	Ryan McCord	Arbroath	13
	Steven Thomson	Berwick Rangers
	Brian Cameron	Elgin City
6	Steven Doris	Arbroath	12
6	Danny Denholm	Forfar Athletic	12
8	David McKenna	Annan Athletic	11
	Gary Fraser	Montrose
	David Cox	Forfar Athletic
	Josh Peters	Forfar Athletic
	Darren Smith	Stirling Albion

Source:^[1]^[2]^[28]

Hat-tricks

Player	For	Against	Result	Date	Ref
Bobby Linn	Arbroath	Stirling Albion	5–3	27 August 2016	^[29]
Shane Sutherland	Elgin City	Berwick Rangers	6–0	10 December 2016	^[30]
Shane Sutherland	Elgin City	Edinburgh City	3–1	28 January 2017	^[31]
Steven Thomson	Berwick Rangers	Annan Athletic	4–1	4 February 2017	^[32]
David Goodwillie	Clyde	Elgin City	3–2	15 April 2017	^[33]
Ryan McCord	Arbroath	Elgin City	3–2	29 April 2017	^[34]

Discipline

Player

Yellow cards

As of matches played on 6 May 2017

Rank	Player	Club	Cards
1	Michael Bolochoweckyj	Montrose	12
2	Mark Nicolson	Elgin City	10
2	Terry Masson	Montrose	10
4	Kyle Miller	Cowdenbeath	9
4	David Gormley	Clyde	9
6	Darren Lavery	Berwick Rangers	8
	Sean Higgins	Clyde
	Aaron Dunsmore	Edinburgh City
	Ryan Porteous	Edinburgh City
	Martyn Fotheringham	Forfar Athletic
	Gavin Swankie	Forfar Athletic

Source:^[35]^[28]

Red cards

As of matches played on 6 May 2017

Rank	Player	Club	Cards
1	Michael McKenna	Berwick Rangers	3
2	Darren Ramsay	Annan Athletic	2
	Ricky Little	Arbroath
	Jassem Sukar	Arbroath
	Gary Fraser	Montrose
	Terry Masson	Montrose

Source:^[35]^[28]

Club

Yellow cards

As of matches played on 6 May 2017

Rank	Club	Cards
1	Forfar Athletic	72
2	Berwick Rangers	68
2	Clyde	68

Source:^[36]

Red cards

As of matches played on 6 May 2017^[36]

Rank	Club	Cards
1	Berwick Rangers	9
2	Montrose	8
3	Forfar Athletic	6

Source:^[36]

Attendances

Pos	Team	Total	High	Low	Average	Change
1	Annan Athletic	6,955	461	241	386	−13.6%^†
2	Arbroath	13,078	1,731	482	726	+11.5%^†
3	Berwick Rangers	7,679	695	302	426	−7.6%^†
4	Clyde	9,472	738	365	526	−14.1%^†
5	Cowdenbeath	6,216	571	258	345	−42.0%^†
6	Edinburgh City	7,212	590	256	400	n/a^†
7	Elgin City	12,366	1,091	519	687	−6.7%^†
8	Forfar Athletic	10,861	1,564	337	638	−8.6%^†
9	Montrose	10,901	1,324	283	605	+7.1%^†
10	Stirling Albion	11,508	1,748	412	639	+3.7%^†
	League total	96,248	1,748	241	537	−3.2%^†

Updated to games played on 6 May 2017
Source: ^[3]^[4]

Awards

Monthly awards

Month	Manager of the Month		Player of the Month		Ref.
Month	Manager	Club	Player	Club	Ref.
August	Gary Bollan	Forfar Athletic	Josh Peters	Forfar Athletic	^[37]
September	Gary Bollan	Forfar Athletic	Thomas O'Brien	Forfar Athletic
October	Jim Weir	Elgin City	Shane Sutherland	Elgin City
November	Gary Jardine	Edinburgh City	Marc Laird	Edinburgh City
December	Gary Jardine	Edinburgh City	Andrew Stobie	Edinburgh City
January	Gary Bollan	Forfar Athletic	Shane Sutherland	Elgin City
February	Jim Chapman	Annan Athletic	Gavin Skelton	Annan Athletic
March	Dave Mackay	Stirling Albion	Greg Rutherford	Berwick Rangers
April	Dick Campbell	Arbroath	Ryan McCord	Arbroath

Smith

Little

O'Brien

Hamilton

MacPhee

Cameron

Reilly

Linn

Doris

Sutherland

MacDonald

PFA Scotland Team of the Year^[38]^[39]

Annual awards

League Two Manager of the Season

The League Two Manager of the Season was awarded to Dick Campbell.^[40]

League Two Player of the Season

The League Two Player of the Season was awarded to Shane Sutherland.

PFA Scotland Scottish League Two Team of the Year

The PFA Scotland Scottish Championship Team of the Year was:^[38]^[39]

Goalkeeper: Chris Smith (Stirling Albion)
Defence: Ricky Little (Arbroath), Thomas O'Brien (Forfar Athletic), Colin Hamilton (Arbroath), Archie MacPhee (Elgin City)
Midfield: Brian Cameron (Elgin City), Thomas Reilly (Elgin City), Bobby Linn (Arbroath)
Attack: Steven Doris (Arbroath), Shane Sutherland (Elgin City), Peter MacDonald (footballer) (Clyde)

League Two play-offs

The semi-final was contested between the winners of the 2016–17 Highland Football League (Buckie Thistle)^[41] and the 2016–17 Lowland Football League (East Kilbride).^[42] The winners then played off against the bottom club in League Two (Cowdenbeath).^[43]

Semi-finals

First leg

Buckie Thistle v East Kilbride

29 April 2017	Buckie Thistle	2 – 2	East Kilbride	Buckie
15:00	Angus 9' Urquhart 31' (pen.)	BBC Sport report	Victoria 44' McLean 85'	Stadium: Victoria Park Referee: David Munro

Second leg

East Kilbride v Buckie Thistle

6 May 2017	East Kilbride	2 – 1 (4–3 agg.)	Buckie Thistle	East Kilbride
15:00	Winter 5' Strachan 21'	BBC Sport report	Proctor 31' (o.g.) Copeland 44' Angus 80'	Stadium: K-Park Training Academy

Final

First leg

East Kilbride v Cowdenbeath

13 May 2017^[44]	East Kilbride	0–0	Cowdenbeath	East Kilbride
15:00		BBC Sport report		Stadium: K-Park Training Academy Attendance: 548 Referee: Gavin Duncan

Second leg

Cowdenbeath v East Kilbride

20 May 2017^[44]	Cowdenbeath	1 – 1 (a.e.t.) (1–1 agg.) (5 – 3 p)	East Kilbride	Cowdenbeath
14:00	Mullen 3'	BBC Sport report	Gibbons 64'	Stadium: Central Park Attendance: 1,676 Referee: Craig Charleston
	Penalties
	Mullen Renton Syme Johnston Henderson		Strachan McLean Woods Victoria

References

^ ^a ^b "2016–17 Scottish League Two scorers". ESPN. Retrieved 7 August 2016.
^ ^a ^b "Scottish League Two Top Scorers". BBC. Retrieved 7 August 2016.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o "2016–17 Scottish League Two performance". ESPN. Retrieved 7 August 2016.
^ ^a ^b "2015–16 Scottish League Two performance". ESPN. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
^ "The Rules of the SPFL" (PDF). Scottish Professional Football League. Retrieved 5 May 2014.
^ "The SPFL has today unveiled the fixture lists for the 2016/17 Ladbrokes Premiership, Ladbrokes Championship, Ladbrokes League 1 and Ladbrokes League 2 seasons". spfl.co.uk. 17 June 2016. Archived from the original on 10 October 2016. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
^ "Annan Athletic Football Club". Scottish Professional Football League. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
^ "Arbroath Football Club". Scottish Professional Football League. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
^ "Berwick Rangers Football Club". Scottish Professional Football League. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
^ "Clyde Football Club". Scottish Professional Football League. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
^ "Cowdenbeath Football Club". Scottish Professional Football League. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
^ "Edinburgh City Football Club". Scottish Professional Football League. Retrieved 23 April 2017.
^ "Elgin City Football Club". Scottish Professional Football League. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
^ "Forfar Athletic Football Club". Scottish Professional Football League. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
^ "Montrose Football Club". Scottish Professional Football League. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
^ "Stirling Albion Football Club". Scottish Professional Football League. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
^ ^a ^b "Cowdenbeath on the hunt for new manager after parting company with Colin Nish". The Courier. 12 May 2016. Retrieved 12 May 2016.
^ ^a ^b "Club statement". Stirling Albion FC. 24 September 2016. Archived from the original on 9 October 2016. Retrieved 6 October 2016.
^ "Club statement". Stirling Albion FC. 5 November 2016. Archived from the original on 7 November 2016. Retrieved 6 November 2016.
^ "New manager". Stirling Albion FC. 9 November 2016. Archived from the original on 10 November 2016. Retrieved 9 November 2016.
^ ^a ^b "Paul Hegarty sacked as Montrose manager". Montrose Review. Johnston Publishing Ltd. 16 November 2016. Archived from the original on 2016-11-17. Retrieved 16 November 2016.
^ ^a ^b "Montrose: Stewart Petrie is new manager at Links Park". BBC Sport. BBC. 4 December 2016. Retrieved 4 December 2016.
^ "Barry Ferguson resigns as Clyde manager". BBC Sport. BBC. 26 February 2017. Retrieved 26 February 2017.
^ "Tuesday Night's Match". Clyde FC. 26 February 2017. Retrieved 27 February 2017.
^ ^a ^b "Clyde appoint Peter MacDonald & JP McGovern as interim bosses". BBC Sport. BBC. 3 March 2017. Retrieved 10 March 2017.
^ "Liam Fox". Cowdenbeath FC. 6 March 2016. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
^ "New Managerial Appointment". Cowdenbeath FC. 10 March 2016. Retrieved 10 March 2016.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Scottish League Two 2016–17". Soccerbase. Retrieved 2 March 2017.
^ "Arbroath 5–3 Stirling Albion". BBC Sport. BBC. 27 August 2016. Retrieved 28 August 2016.
^ "Elgin City 6–0 Berwick Rangers". BBC Sport. 10 December 2016. Retrieved 10 December 2016.
^ "League 2: Elgin City 3–1 Edinburgh City". Scottish Professional Football League. 28 January 2017. Retrieved 28 January 2017.
^ "League 2: Berwick Rangers 4–1 Annan Athletic". Scottish Professional Football League. 4 February 2017. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
^ "Clyde 3–2 Elgin City". BBC Sport. BBC. 15 April 2017. Retrieved 17 April 2017.
^ "Arbroath 3–2 Elgin City". BBC Sport. BBC. 29 April 2017. Retrieved 29 April 2017.
^ ^a ^b "2016–17 Scottish League Two statistics – Player Discipline". ESPN. Retrieved 7 August 2016.
^ ^a ^b ^c "2016–17 Scottish League Two statistics – Club Discipline". ESPN. Retrieved 7 August 2015.
^ "SPFL monthly awards". www.spfl.co.uk. Scottish Professional Football League. May 28, 2014. Archived from the original on 2016-05-31. Retrieved 2016-04-09.
^ ^a ^b "Liam Lindsay with Celtic & Dons players in Premiership team of the year". BBC Sport. BBC. 5 May 2017. Retrieved 25 May 2017.
^ ^a ^b "PFA Scotland Teams of the Year 2017". PFA Scotland. 5 May 2017. Archived from the original on 16 August 2017. Retrieved 25 May 2017.
^ "Campbell lands League 2 award". Scottish Professional Football League. 24 May 2017. Retrieved 26 May 2017.
^ Douglass, Sean (22 April 2017). "Buckie demolish Strathspey 9-0 to secure Highland League title on final day". Evening Express. DC Thomson & Co Ltd. Retrieved 23 April 2017.
^ Thomson, Paul (1 April 2017). "East Kilbride are Lowland League champions after thumping win at Gala". Daily Record. Scottish Daily Record and Sunday Mail Ltd. Retrieved 11 April 2017.
^ "Scottish League Two: Arbroath seal title as Cowden face play-off". BBC Sport. BBC. 6 May 2017. Retrieved 7 May 2017.
^ ^a ^b "Play-off fixtures for the coming week". Scottish Professional Football League. 6 May 2017. Retrieved 7 May 2017.

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