2015–16 Scottish League Two

The 2015–16 Scottish League Two (referred to as the Ladbrokes League Two for sponsorship reasons) was the 22nd season in the current format of 10 teams in the fourth-tier of Scottish football. The last placed team entered a play-off with a team nominated by the Scottish Football Association from outside the SPFL to determine which team enters League Two in the 2016–17 season.[3]

Scottish League Two
Season2015–16
ChampionsEast Fife
PromotedEast Fife
Queen's Park
RelegatedEast Stirlingshire
Matches played180
Goals scored517 (2.87 per match)
Top goalscorerNathan Austin
(22 goals)[1]
Biggest home winStirling Albion 7–0 Montrose
(9 February 2016)[2]
Biggest away winStirling Albion 0–6 East Fife
(19 March 2016)[2]
Highest scoringEast Fife 5–3 East Stirlingshire
(14 November 2015)[2]
Longest winning run4 matches:[2]
Clyde
East Fife
Elgin City
Longest unbeaten run7 matches:[2]
East Fife
Longest winless run8 matches:[2]
Montrose
Longest losing run6 matches:[2]
Berwick Rangers
Highest attendance1,387[2]
Montrose 0–2 Arbroath
(2 January 2016)
Lowest attendance238[2]
East Stirlingshire 3–1 Montrose
(21 November 2015)
Berwick Rangers 3–2 Annan Athletic
(16 February 2016)
Total attendance99,947[2]
Average attendance555[2]
All statistics correct as of 1 May 2016.

Teams

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Stadia and locations

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Annan Athletic Arbroath Berwick Rangers Clyde
Galabank Gayfield Park Shielfield Park Broadwood Stadium
Capacity: 2,514[4] Capacity: 6,600[5] Capacity: 4,500[6] Capacity: 7,936[7]
       
East Fife East Stirlingshire
Bayview Stadium Ochilview Park
Capacity: 1,980[8] Capacity: 3,746[9]
 
 
Elgin City Montrose Queen's Park Stirling Albion
Borough Briggs Links Park Hampden Park Forthbank Stadium
Capacity: 4,520[10] Capacity: 3,292[11] Capacity: 51,866[12] Capacity: 3,808[13]
       

Personnel

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Team Manager Captain Manufacturer Sponsors
Annan Athletic   Jim Chapman   Steven Black Stanno M&S Engineering Ltd
Arbroath   Dick Campbell   Mark Whatley Pendle Megatech
Berwick Rangers   John Coughlin   Jonny Fairbairn Zoo Sport Automatic Retailing Vending Ltd
Clyde   Barry Ferguson   Mark McLaughlin Hummel Cash for Kids
East Fife   Gary Naysmith   Steven Campbell Joma OLS Laundry Service
East Stirlingshire   Craig Tully   Richard Barnard Jako Shire Trust
Elgin City   Jim Weir   Jamie Duff EC 1893 McDonald & Munro
Montrose   Paul Hegarty   Paul Watson Nike Intervention Rentals
Queen's Park   Gus MacPherson   Tony Quinn Under Armour Irn-Bru
Stirling Albion   Stuart McLaren   Ross McMillan Macron Prudential

Managerial changes

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Team Outgoing manager Manner of departure Date of vacancy Position in table Incoming manager Date of appointment
Berwick Rangers   Colin Cameron Sacked 31 October 2015[14] 7th   John Coughlin 6 November 2015[15]
Arbroath   Todd Lumsden Sacked 6 March 2016[16] 8th   Dick Campbell 8 March 2016[17]

League table

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Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Promotion, qualification or relegation
1 East Fife (C, P) 36 18 8 10 62 41 +21 62 Promotion to Scottish League One
2 Elgin City 36 17 8 11 59 46 +13 59 Qualification to League One play-offs
3 Clyde 36 17 6 13 56 45 +11 57
4 Queen's Park (O, P) 36 15 11 10 46 32 +14 56
5 Annan Athletic 36 16 8 12 69 57 +12 56
6 Berwick Rangers 36 14 7 15 45 50 −5 49
7 Stirling Albion 36 13 9 14 47 46 +1 48
8 Montrose 36 11 10 15 50 70 −20 43
9 Arbroath 36 11 6 19 42 51 −9 39
10 East Stirlingshire (R) 36 9 5 22 41 79 −38 32 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; (R) Relegated

Results

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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.

Season statistics

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Scoring

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Top scorers

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As of matches played on 30 April 2016[1]
Rank Player Club Goals
1   Nathan Austin East Fife 22
2   Craig Gunn Elgin City 21
3   Gary Fraser Montrose 19
4   Blair Henderson Berwick Rangers 17
5   Peter Weatherson Annan Athletic 15
6   Josh Todd Annan Athletic 13

Hat-tricks

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Player For Against Result Date Ref
  Nathan Austin East Fife Montrose 4–1 26 September 2015 [18]
  David Gormley4 Clyde Berwick Rangers 5–0 21 November 2015 [19]
  Darren Smith Stirling Albion Montrose 3–1 12 December 2015 [20]
  Nathan Austin East Fife Stirling Albion 3–1 26 December 2015 [21]
  Darren Smith Stirling Albion Montrose 7–0 9 February 2016 [22]
Note

4 Player scored 4 goals

Discipline

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Player

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Club

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Awards

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Monthly awards

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Month Manager of the Month Player of the Month Ref.
Manager Club Player Club
August   Gary Naysmith East Fife   Smart Osadolor Annan Athletic [25]
September   Gus MacPherson Queen's Park   Bobby Linn Arbroath
October   Paul Hegarty Montrose   Matty Flynn Annan Athletic
November   Barry Ferguson Clyde   David Gormley Clyde
December   Stuart McLaren Stirling Albion   Darren Smith Stirling Albion
January   Jim Weir Elgin City   Nathan Austin East Fife
February   Barry Ferguson Clyde   Steven Doris Stirling Albion
March   Gary Naysmith East Fife   Kyle Wilkie East Fife
April   John Coughlin Berwick Rangers   Brian Cameron Elgin City

League Two play-offs

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The first round was contested between Cove Rangers and Edinburgh City, the winners of the Highland League and Lowland League respectively. City, the winners, then played off against the bottom club in League Two, East Stirlingshire, swapping with them and being promoted to the 2016–17 Scottish League Two with a victory.

Semi-finals

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First leg

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23 April 2016 Cove Rangers 0–3 Edinburgh City Harlaw Park, Inverurie
15:00 BBC Report Allum   22', 45'
Donaldson   41'

Second leg

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30 April 2016 Edinburgh City 1–1
(4–1 agg.)
Cove Rangers Meadowbank Stadium, Edinburgh
15:00 Gair   32' BBC report Watt   86' Attendance: 839

Final

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First leg

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7 May 2016 Edinburgh City 1–1 East Stirlingshire Meadowbank Stadium, Edinburgh
15:00 Gair   15' (pen.)
Mbu   77'
BBC Report Wright   42'
Donaldson   90+1'
Attendance: 1,090
Referee: Gavin Duncan

Second leg

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14 May 2016 East Stirlingshire 0–1
(1–2 agg.)
Edinburgh City Ochilview Park, Stenhousemuir
15:00 Donaldson   86' BBC Report Gair   87' (pen.) Attendance: 1,286
Referee: Don Robertson

References

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  1. ^ a b "2015–16 Scottish League Two scorers". ESPN. Retrieved 20 August 2015.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "2015–16 Scottish League Two performance". ESPN. Retrieved 20 August 2015.
  3. ^ "The Rules of the SPFL" (PDF). Scottish Professional Football League. Retrieved 5 May 2014.
  4. ^ "Annan Athletic Football Club". Scottish Professional Football League. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
  5. ^ "Arbroath Football Club". Scottish Professional Football League. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
  6. ^ "Berwick Rangers Football Club". Scottish Professional Football League. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
  7. ^ "Clyde Football Club". Scottish Professional Football League. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
  8. ^ "East Fife Football Club". Scottish Professional Football League. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
  9. ^ "East Stirlingshire Football Club". Scottish Professional Football League. Archived from the original on 31 October 2017. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
  10. ^ "Elgin City Football Club". Scottish Professional Football League. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
  11. ^ "Montrose Football Club". Scottish Professional Football League. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
  12. ^ "Queens Park Football Club". Scottish Professional Football League. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
  13. ^ "Stirling Albion Football Club". Scottish Professional Football League. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
  14. ^ "Montrose 4–1 Brewick". berwickrangers.com. 31 October 2015. Retrieved 5 November 2015.
  15. ^ "Coughlin named new Berwick boss". SPFL. 6 November 2015. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 6 November 2015.
  16. ^ "Struggling Arbroath part company with manager Todd Lumsden". BBC Sport. 6 March 2016. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
  17. ^ Nicholson, Eric (8 March 2016). "Arbroath appoint Dick Campbell as manager". The Courier. Archived from the original on 8 March 2016. Retrieved 8 March 2016.
  18. ^ "Montrose 1–4 East Fife". BBC Sport. 26 September 2015. Retrieved 2 October 2015.
  19. ^ "Berwick Rangers 0–5 Clyde". BBC Sport. 21 November 2015. Retrieved 25 November 2015.
  20. ^ "Montrose 1–3 Stirling". BBC Sport. 12 December 2015. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
  21. ^ "Stirling 1–3 East Fife". BBC Sport. 26 December 2015. Retrieved 2 January 2016.
  22. ^ "Stirling Albion 7–0 Montrose". BBC Sport. 9 February 2016. Retrieved 9 February 2016.
  23. ^ a b "2015–16 Scottish League Two statistics – Player Discipline". ESPN. Retrieved 16 August 2015.
  24. ^ a b "2015–16 Scottish League Two statistics – Club Discipline". ESPN. Retrieved 20 August 2015.
  25. ^ "SPFL monthly awards". www.spfl.co.uk. Scottish Professional Football League. May 28, 2014. Archived from the original on 2016-05-31. Retrieved 2015-10-23.