2022–23 Scottish Women's Premier League

The 2022–23 Scottish Women's Premier League was the 22nd season of the SWPL, the highest division of women's football in Scotland since 2002. The league was split into two divisions – SWPL 1 with 12 clubs and SWPL 2 with eight clubs. Both divisions were enlarged after the 2021–22 season (from ten and seven clubs respectively).^[1]

Rangers were the defending champions, after winning their first women's Scottish title in 2021–22 by beating the 15-time champions Glasgow City.^[2] Dundee United and Glasgow Women won promotion to SWPL 1.^[3] Montrose, Gartcairn and East Fife won promotion to SWPL 2 as the top three clubs in the SWF Championship in 2021–22.

In February 2022, a majority of SWPL clubs voted to leave the Scottish Women's Football association (under the auspices of the Scottish Football Association); from 2022–23 onwards, the two divisions will be administered by the Scottish Professional Football League.^[4][1]

A 12-club "split" format returned in SWPL 1 in 2022–23, with a double round-robin before the "split",^[5] then another double round-robin of the top six and bottom six clubs respectively.^[1] The SWPL previously used a "split" format between the 2012 and 2015 seasons. In SWPL 2, the eight clubs simply played each other four times.^[5] The top club in SWPL 2 won automatic promotion, the 12th-placed club in SWPL 1 was relegated, and promotion/relegation play-offs took place between the clubs finishing 11th in SWPL 1 and 2nd in SWPL 2, and between the clubs finishing 7th in SWPL 2 and 2nd in the SWF Championship.^[5] The league season began on 7 August 2022 and ended on 21 May 2023.

Glasgow City won the SWPL 1 championship on the last day of the season, Lauren Davidson scoring in stoppage time for a 1–0 victory over Rangers at Ibrox Stadium to stay ahead of Celtic, despite the Hoops' simultaneous home win over Hearts which put them in a title-winning position for part of the day (Rangers could also have retained the title with a win).^[6][7] City had been in first place and unbeaten at the split, but lost twice to Celtic and once to Rangers as the gap closed between the three clubs, leading to the dramatic conclusion.

At the other end of the table, Glasgow Women were out of their depth and relegated having lost every match; they were replaced by Montrose who won SWPL 2 and secured a second consecutive promotion. Gartcairn almost did likewise, but were defeated in the playoff by Hamilton Academical.^[8] At the bottom of SWPL 2, East Fife were relegated to be replaced by Livingston, but Stirling University survived by defeating Rossvale in the playoff.^[9]

Teams

SWPL 1

Team	Location	Manager	Home ground	Capacity	2021–22 position
Aberdeen	Cove Bay	Emma Hunter Gavin Beith	Balmoral Stadium	2,602	5th
Celtic	Airdrie	Fran Alonso	Excelsior Stadium	10,101	3rd
Dundee United	Dundee	Graeme Hart	Gussie Park[10]	TBC	1st (SWPL2)
Glasgow City	Springburn	Leanne Ross	Petershill Park	1,000	2nd
Glasgow Women	Glasgow	Andy Gardner	New Tinto Park	1,000	2nd (SWPL2)
Hamilton Academical	Hamilton	Gary Doctor	New Douglas Park	6,018	10th
Heart of Midlothian	Edinburgh	Eva Olid	Oriam	1,000	8th
Hibernian	Edinburgh	Dean Gibson	Meadowbank Stadium	TBC	4th
Motherwell	Motherwell	Paul Brownlie Leanne Crichton	Alliance Park	500	7th
Partick Thistle	Springburn	Brian Graham	Petershill Park	1,000	9th
Rangers	Milngavie	Malky Thomson	Broadwood Stadium[11]	8,086	1st
Spartans	Edinburgh	Debbi McCulloch	Ainslie Park	3,000	6th

SWPL 2

Team	Location	Manager	Home ground	Capacity	2021–22 position
Boroughmuir Thistle	Edinburgh	Suzy Shepherd	Meadowbank Stadium	1,320 (500 seated)	3rd
East Fife	Methil	Liz Anderson	Bayview Stadium	1,980	2nd (Championship North)
Gartcairn	Airdrie	Robert McCallum	MTC Park[12]	300	1st (Championship South)
Kilmarnock	Kilmarnock	Jim Chapman	Rugby Park	15,003	4th
Montrose	Montrose	Craig Feroz	Links Park	4,936	1st (Championship North)
Queen's Park	Glasgow	Mark Kirk	New Tinto Park	1,000	6th
St Johnstone	Perth	Murdo Steven	Riverside Stadium	1,000	5th
Stirling University	Stirling	Nile Robbins	University of Stirling	1,000	7th

Aberdeen

Airdrie

Dundee United

Edinburgh

East Fife

Glasgow

Hamilton

Kilmarnock

Montrose

Motherwell

Rangers

St Johnstone

Stirling University

Glasgow teams:
Glasgow City
Glasgow Women
Partick Thistle
Queen's Park

Airdrie teams:
Celtic
Gartcairn

Edinburgh teams:
Boroughmuir Thistle
Heart of Midlothian
Hibernian
Spartans

Locations of teams in the SWPL

SWPL 1

Scottish Women's Premier League 1

Season	2022–23
Champions	Glasgow City
Relegated	Glasgow Women
Champions League	Glasgow City Celtic
Matches played	168
Goals scored	621 (3.7 per match)
Biggest home win	Rangers 14–0 Glasgow Women (7 August 2022)
Biggest away win	Glasgow Women 0–10 Rangers (4 December 2022)
Highest scoring	Rangers 14–0 Glasgow Women (7 August 2022)
Highest attendance	15,822 Celtic v Hearts (21 May 2023)
← 2021–22 2023–24 → All statistics correct as of 4 May 2023.

Regular season

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Glasgow City	22	20	2	0	94	7	+87	62	Qualification for the Top six
2	Celtic	22	18	2	2	90	4	+86	56
3	Rangers	22	17	4	1	89	5	+84	55
4	Heart of Midlothian	22	12	4	6	33	19	+14	40
5	Hibernian	22	9	5	8	45	34	+11	32
6	Partick Thistle	22	9	4	9	37	50	−13	31
7	Motherwell	22	8	6	8	28	39	−11	30	Qualification for the Bottom six
8	Spartans	22	7	5	10	19	38	−19	26
9	Dundee United	22	5	2	15	21	61	−40	17
10	Aberdeen	22	4	3	15	20	56	−36	15
11	Hamilton Academical	22	4	1	17	20	74	−54	13
12	Glasgow Women	22	0	0	22	6	115	−109	0

Source: ^[13]
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Number of goals scored

Home \ Away	ABE	CEL	DUN	GLA	GLW	HAM	HOM	HIB	MOT	PAR	RAN	SPA
Aberdeen		0–3	1–2	0–7	2–0	2–0	0–1	1–3	1–3	2–2	0–8	1–1
Celtic	3–0		7–0	0–1	7–0	6–0	3–0	9–0	0–0	8–0	3–0	4–0
Dundee United	1–2	0–4		1–8	2–1	3–2	0–2	1–3	1–1	0–1	0–4	2–1
Glasgow City	2–1	2–1	7–0		11–0	6–0	2–0	2–1	3–0	8–1	1–1	7–0
Glasgow Women	0–1	0–8	0–4	0–5		3–4	0–3	0–6	0–2	1–8	0–10	0–2
Hamilton Academical	3–1	0–7	2–2	0–6	4–0		0–1	0–4	1–3	1–5	0–5	0–1
Heart of Midlothian	3–0	1–2	2–0	0–3	3–0	5–0		1–1	1–0	3–1	0–0	2–0
Hibernian	0–0	0–2	4–1	0–4	7–0	4–0	1–1		2–3	0–0	0–1	1–2
Motherwell	4–1	0–8	2–1	0–1	4–0	2–1	1–1	0–2		1–1	0–7	2–2
Partick Thistle	4–3	0–2	1–0	1–4	6–0	1–0	1–2	0–4	1–0		0–6	3–0
Rangers	4–1	0–0	5–0	0–0	14–0	6–0	2–0	4–0	4–0	5–0		2–0
Spartans	2–0	0–3	1–0	0–4	2–1	1–2	2–1	2–2	0–0	0–0	0–1

Source: ^[13]
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Top six

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Glasgow City (C)	32	27	2	3	112	18	+94	83	Qualification for the Champions League first round
2	Celtic	32	26	3	3	115	11	+104	81
3	Rangers	32	24	6	2	111	9	+102	78
4	Heart of Midlothian	32	14	7	11	39	42	−3	49
5	Hibernian	32	11	6	15	54	51	+3	39
6	Partick Thistle	32	9	5	18	42	73	−31	32

Source: ^[14]
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Number of goals scored
(C) Champions

Home \ Away	CEL	GLA	HOM	HIB	PAR	RAN
Celtic		3–1	2–0	3–0	2–0	0–1
Glasgow City	2–4		3–0	2–1	2–1	1–2
Heart of Midlothian	0–6	0–2		2–1	1–1	0–6
Hibernian	1–2	0–2	1–1		3–1	0–1
Partick Thistle	1–2	0–2	0–1	1–2		0–5
Rangers	1–1	0–1	1–1	2–0	3–0

Source: ^[14]
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Bottom six

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
7	Spartans	32	16	6	10	48	51	−3	54
8	Motherwell	32	13	8	11	52	53	−1	47
9	Aberdeen	32	9	3	20	39	77	−38	30
10	Dundee United	32	8	5	19	45	76	−31	29
11	Hamilton Academical (Q)	32	8	3	21	38	93	−55	27	Qualification for the SWPL1 relegation/promotion play-off[8]
12	Glasgow Women (R)	32	0	0	32	9	150	−141	0	Relegation to the SWPL2

Source: ^[15]
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Number of goals scored
(Q) Qualified for the phase indicated; (R) Relegated

Home \ Away	ABE	DUN	GLW	HAM	MOT	SPA
Aberdeen		1–0	5–1	2–1	0–2	1–2
Dundee United	3–4		5–0	1–1	4–2	0–1
Glasgow Women	1–3	0–7		1–3	0–3	0–1
Hamilton Academical	2–1	1–1	2–0		1–4	2–4
Motherwell	3–0	1–1	4–0	1–3		2–3
Spartans	6–2	4–2	2–0	4–2	2–2

Source: ^[15]
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

SWPL 2

Scottish Women's Premier League 2

Season	2022–23
Champions	Montrose
Promoted	Montrose
Matches played	96
Goals scored	334 (3.48 per match)
Biggest home win	Boroughmuir Thistle 7–0 Gartcairn (5 March 2023)
Biggest away win	Stirling University 0–5 Montrose (23 April 2023) East Fife 1–6 Montrose (30 April 2023)
Highest scoring	Boroughmuir Thistle 3–5 Kilmarnock (7 August 2022) Montrose 7–1 St Johnstone (18 January 2023)
← 2021–22 2023–24 → All statistics correct as of 30 April 2023.

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Montrose (C, P)	24	17	4	3	75	25	+50	55	Promotion to SWPL1
2	Gartcairn	24	13	3	8	46	42	+4	42	Qualification for the promotion play-off[8]
3	St Johnstone	24	11	6	7	34	35	−1	39
4	Kilmarnock	24	10	7	7	34	25	+9	37
5	Boroughmuir Thistle	24	9	8	7	53	38	+15	35
6	Queen's Park	24	10	2	12	41	42	−1	32
7	Stirling University	24	4	6	14	28	65	−37	18	Qualification for the SWPL2 relegation/promotion play-off[9]
8	East Fife	24	1	6	17	23	62	−39	9	Relegation to the SWF Championship

Updated to match(es) played on 30 April 2023. Source: ^[16]
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Number of goals scored
(C) Champions; (P) Promoted

Home \ Away	BOR	EFI	GAR	KIL	MON	QPA	STJ	STI	BOR	EFI	GAR	KIL	MON	QPA	STJ	STI
Boroughmuir Thistle		0–0	2–2	3–5	3–2	3–1	1–1	1–1		1–0	7–0	1–2		2–3		5–1
East Fife	2–2		0–2	0–1	0–4	1–1	0–1	3–3			1–4	1–3	1–6	2–1	1–3
Gartcairn	1–3	4–1		1–0	3–2	2–1	1–0	2–2		5–2		2–1	1–4	2–3	1–3
Kilmarnock	1–0	2–1	2–3		1–1	1–2	3–1	1–1	4–2		0–0		0–1	0–1		0–0
Montrose	0–3	5–1	2–0	1–1		5–2	2–0	5–0	3–3	5–1		3–1			7–1	4–1
Queen's Park	2–1	2–1	2–1	0–2	0–1		2–1	3–4	2–2		1–2		2–3		1–2	3–0
St Johnstone	3–2	1–1	1–3	0–0		2–1		3–2	1–1	2–1		0–0	0–0	1–0		3–2
Stirling University	1–4	2–0	0–3	0–3	0–4	1–5	1–3		0–1	2–2	2–1		0–5		2–1

Updated to match(es) played on 30 April 2023. Source: ^[16]
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

References

1. "SWPL top flight expanding to 12 teams for next season". BBC Sport. 1 Apr 2022.
2. "Park's SWPL: Rangers Women champions for first time". SheKicks. Archived from the original on 9 May 2022.
3. "Glasgow Women promoted in thrilling final day for SWPL - Scottish Women's Football". SWF. Archived from the original on 15 May 2022.
4. "SWPL to be administered by the SPFL for season 2022/23". Scottish Women's Football. 15 Feb 2022. Archived from the original on 15 Feb 2022.
5. "SWPL announce 12-team top flight plans to mirror mens' [sic] SPFL". Edinburgh News. 1 April 2022. Archived from the original on 2 April 2022.
6. "Rangers 0 Glasgow City 1 RECAP as Celtic denied SWFL title by last gasp Lauren Davidson goal". Daily Record. 21 May 2023. Retrieved 16 May 2024.
7. Watch SWPL: City dramatically snatch title from Celtic in dying seconds, BBC Sport, 21 May 2023
8. SWPL1: Hamilton come from behind against Gartcairn to secure top-flight status, BBC Sport, 4 June 2023
9. Stirling University narrowly win SWPL 2 play-off, SheKicks, 5 June 2023
10. "GUSSIE PARK FUNDING UPDATE". Dundee United Football Club. Retrieved 2022-07-21.
11. "Rangers Confirm Broadwood Stadium as Home Venue For 2022/23 SWPL season". Rangers Football Club. Retrieved 2022-08-04.
12. "Gartcairn FA". SWF. Archived from the original on 12 Apr 2021. Retrieved 14 Aug 2022.
13. "Summary – SWPL1". Soccerway. Retrieved 12 March 2023.
14. "Summary – SWPL1". Soccerway. Retrieved 12 May 2023.
15. "Summary – SWPL1". Soccerway. Retrieved 18 April 2023.
16. "Summary – SWPL2". Soccerway. Retrieved 30 April 2023.