A guide to the Scottish 2008/09 derby games

The football fixtures for next season where announced on Monday, and with the promotions and relegations from last season come a new series of games where old rivals are reunited. Inside Left has scoured the fixture list to bring you the low-down on this season's derby games across all four divisions in Scotland.

We have one new derby in the Scottish Premier League and two new derby games in the First Division,  as well as one potentially explosive weekend in September in the Second and Third divisions when, on the 13th of September, pretty much every game is a derby game! 

Scottish Premier League

Celtic v. Rangers (30th August)
The first old firm derby of the season takes place on the 30th August. The two teams met four times last season, with 2 wins and 2 draws each. Celtic are the defending champions and Rangers, still battered and bruised from the dramatic end to the 2007/08 campaign, will be looking to put the first dent in Celtic's title defence. Rangers didn't beat Celtic at Parkhead last season, their last win coming in March 2007 so expect the first game to be another explosive affair.
Throw In:  This year marks the 120th anniversary of the Old Firm game, first played in 1888 when Celtic beat a Rangers reserve team 5-2.

Motherwell v. Hamilton (11th November)
With Hamilton promoted to the SPL, we have a new derby, as North Lanarkshire take on South Lanarkshire. We have to go quite a way back for the last time these two teams met in the league; to the 1st April 1989 in fact, when Motherwell won at Fir Park by by one goal to nil. That season, in which Hamilton where also relegated,  the two teams played each other four times, with Motherwell coming out on top with 2 wins, a draw and one loss. They've met in the Scottish Cup and the League Cup since that time; Motherwell won on both occasions.
Throw In: The last time these two teams met in the Scottish League Cup on the 23rd August 2005, the winning goal (which came in the last minute) was scored by Motherwell's appropriately named Jim Hamilton.

Hibernian v. Hearts (18th November)
The 280th Edinburgh derby takes place at Easter Road. Their three meetings last season ended in a win and a loss each, and one draw. Hibernian finished 6th last season, Hearts 8th. The Tynecastle side are still looking for a new manager, while Hibs manager Mix Paatelainen will take charge in his first full season.
Throw In: There have been some pretty high scoring games between these two sides: on the 2nd January 2003, the game finished 4-4, while another eight goals where shared on the 22nd November 2000; Hibs won 6-2, helped by a hat-trick by current manager Mixu Paatelainen. The most one-sided game was in 1973 when Hibs won 7-0, while the most goals scored in one game was in 1936, when Hearts beat Hibernian 8-3.

Scottish Division 1

St Johnstone v. Dundee (27th September)
Since Dundee where relegated from the SPL at the end of the 2004/05 season, they've lost their traditional rivals, Dundee United. Geographically, their nearest rivals now are Perth based St Johnstone. Games between these two are generally not high scoring games; Dundee's 3-2 victory in March of this year has been the highest scoring since the New Years Day game in 1997, when Dundee ended up on the wrong end of a 7-2 scoreline.
Throw In: St Johnstone where officially founded in 1884, but didn't play their first game until 1885, when, on the 7th March, Caledonian Railway were defeated 1-0.

Airdrie v. Clyde (20th September)
If you're ever in North Lanarkshire, drive 6 miles up the B802 from Cumbernauld, home of Clyde FC, and you'll find yourself in Airdrie, the home of Airdrie United. Technically, the history between these two starts on the 23rd September 2003 when Airdrieonians (who had played in the town since 1887) went bankrupt and were replaced by Clydebank (who had also gone bankrupt) and renamed Airdrie United. Confused? The last time these two played each other was in the First and Second division play-offs. Clyde finished second bottom in the First division, Airdrie second top in the Second. Clyde won the play-offs 3-0 on aggregate thus saving them from relegation. Airdrie United where doomed to stay another season in the Second division until Gretna - somewhat ironically in this story - went bankrupt, and which automatically promoted Airdrie United to the Second.
Throw In: Historically, Clyde's fiercest rivals are Partick Thistle, dating from the time when the club was forced to ground-share Firhill after Clyde where evicted from their previous home, Shawfield Stadium, in 1986. They moved to their current home in Cumbernauld when the Broadwood Stadium was completed in 1994.

Scottish Division 2

Raith v. East Fife (13th September)
Kircaldy vs. Methill, the Fife derby. It's been a while since Sam Leitch's famous, if incorrect, assertion that there'll be dancing on the streets of Raith; the Kircaldy side last played top flight football in 1996 and have not had much to cheer about of late. Methill meanwhile, eight miles up the coast from Kircaldy, is home to East Fife FC, promoted last year from the Third division on the back of a strong season that saw them crowned champions in March 2008. These two sides have not played each other in the league since they were both in the First division in 1988. It's a match-up East Fife will want to forget; they played five times that season, losing all but two of the games, including a 7-1 drubbing in Kircaldy.
Throw In: Raith Rovers where once managed by Claude Anelka, brother of Chelsea bench-warmer Nicolas Anelka. He offered £300,000 to any team that would let him manage them; Raith duly obliged and Claude set them on course for a disastrous season that saw him quit halfway through and ended with Raith's relegation to the Second division. Prime Minister Gordon Brown is said to be a fan of the club. East Fife are the youngest of the four Fife based teams (Dunfermline, Cowdenbeath and Raith Rovers) having been founded in 1903.

Brechin v. Arbroath (13th September)
One half of the Angus quartet of teams play each other on the 13th. Arbroath won promotion to the Second division after they beat (and subsequently relegated) Cowdenbeath. Brechin are establishing themselves in the Second division since their promotion in 2001. They made the news in January when, after fielding two ineligible players in the Scottish Cup win against Hamilton, Brechin where thrown out of the competition. Although Arbroath's traditional rivals Montrose are still in the Third, their games against Brechin have also had their moments: the last time these two where in the same division in season 2004/05, Brechin beat them on all but one occasion, when a 2-2 draw shared the points. Brechin scored four goals in each of their wins over the Lichties! Mind you, Arbroath got their own back when, in their last encounter in August 2006, they knocked Brechin out of the Challenge Cup.
Throw In: Arbroath play their home matches at Gayfield Park, which holds the record for being the closest stadium to the sea in European football (around five metres from the high tide line).

Scottish Division 3

East Stirlingshire v. Stenhousemuir (13th September)
On either side of the Forth and Clyde Canal, there are two teams that have never played each other outside of the Second or Third division. East Stirlingshire, based in Falkirk, and Stenhousemuir, 7 miles up the M9 have both been playing in the Third division since 1998. In that time, Stenhousemuir have gotten two huge victories over East Stirlingshire, namely a 6-0 drubbing in 2004 and a 7-0 demolition in 2006. It's worth noting though that this was at the time when 'the Shire' where arguably one of the worst teams in Britain, a season in which they finished on eight points,  lost the right to vote at league meetings and became the subject of a succesful book 'Pointless - A Season With Britains Worst Football Team'. The publicity East Stirlingshire got did bring some good fortune however; following a documentary about the club on Norwegian television, an East Stirlingshire supporters club was founded in Norway, currently numbering some 6,000 members.
Throw In:  They synthetic surface at Stenhousemuir's Ochilview Park will be the first in the UK to pass the FIFA 2 Star category accreditation.

Forfar v. Montrose (13th September)
The other half of the Angus quartet, Forfar and Montrose lie 22 miles apart and, like East Stirlingshire and Stenhousemuir, are pretty familiar with each other having played in the same division since 1994. Forfar hold the advantage with 50 victories in the 115 games played between the sides, Montrose winning 42. The games are generally not high-scoring, though there have been some notable exceptions such as an 8-2 win for Montrose in 1963 and a 7-0 win for Forfar way back in 1932.
Throw In: Forfar finished bottom of the Third Divison last year, taking over from East Stirlingshire who had finished bottom every season since 2002/03.  Montrose missed out on promotion this season when they lost 4-1 on aggregate to Stranraer.

We never realised there was so much science involved in putting together the fixture lists nor, for that matter, how much involvement each club can have in the process. Take a look at the SPL site to see how it's done.