50 stories that made the season: Play-off brawls, stadium debates and madcap Mexicans

50. The passing of John Lambie

If you were in any doubt over the impact of John Lambie on the clubs he managed, then you only had to witness the emotional scenes at Firhill back in April as his beloved Partick Thistle and Hamilton Academical paid tribute to a man who left an indelible mark on both clubs, and on Scottish football.

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His passing at the age of 77 robbed the Scottish game of one of its most colourful and quotable characters, but his memory will fittingly live on in Maryhill as Thistle’s North Stand was renamed in his honour. Will we see his likes again? Not f*****g likely.

49. Cowdenbeath and Cove Rangers play-off bust-up

Our intrepid eyewitness to this one described a dystopian scene unfolding in darkest Fife, as “a Cowdenbeath sub was held up over a monster truck tyre by his bench while a rammy raged”. The Blue Brazil survived a second successive relegation play-off after a rousing comeback at Central Park against Cove Rangers saw them edge the match 3-2 in controversial fashion, causing the Highlanders to lose the place and see three of their number dismissed in the closing stages. The first saw red for a wild tackle, but at least his dismissal was loosely related to football. The other two took their leave after a full-scale brawl involving both sets of players and benches rounded off the tie in the traditional fashion.

48. Brechin go an entire season without a win

It is little wonder that the Brechin hierarchy decided to reward their loyal supporters with a free pint at their last home game of the season after managing to navigate an entire Championship campaign without earning a single victory. And still only 661 turned up. Hopefully it softened the blow of the 5-1 loss to Queen of the South.

To be fair to Darren Dods’s men, they were always going to be up against it facing the far superior resources of the mainly full-time opposition in the division, but while relegation was always likely to be in the back of their minds as a possibility, becoming the first team not to win a match in a campaign since Vale of Leven in 1891-92 probably wasn't.

47. Josh Windass being Josh Windass

Where to start? The gifted but enigmatic attacker may be inconsistent in terms of his contribution to play, but he rarely fails to rise to the occasion when providing moments of top-class Scottish football patter.

On one night at Firhill he infuriated both his own set of supporters by shushing them, and the opposition fans by aiming an offensive gesture in their direction. He talked a reporter through his goal against Atletico Miniero in the winter friendly by saying he ‘just swazzed it bottom stanch.’ Just days after Scott Allan scythed down Windass’s Rangers teammate Jordan Rossiter, Windass was posting holiday snaps alongside Allan to further ingratiate himself with his own fans. And all this is before his mind-bending conversation about hens with a Rangers TV host that ended with him asking ‘So, what is a chicken then?’

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But the one moment that topped them all was when he cleaned out manager Pedro Caixinha with his best slide tackle of the season in an Old Firm game at Ibrox. Never change, Josh.

46. Leigh Griffiths being Leigh Griffiths

In the interests of balance, a relatively quiet season off the field by Griffiths’s own high standards still managed to capture more than the odd headline, and he started the campaign with a bang.

Celtic’s trip to Belfast to take on Linfield was always likely to cause moments of controversy, and seeing the Celtic striker tie a scarf to the post was to be expected. Seeing him holding a bottle of Buckfast that had been thrown at him on the pitch, perhaps less so.

It was an injury-hit campaign for Griffiths, but he made the most of his time off by taking in a game or two, and he seemed to have a particularly good time watching his team's 3-2 triumph at Ibrox in March as he was pictured celebrating by waving a massive Irish tricolour. Griffiths later admitted that he had gotten a little bit carried away, but the mischievous glint told you that he wasn’t all that bothered if his antics hadn’t ingratiated him with the locals.

In any case, he probably won’t be repeating the feat next season. How will he get a ticket?

45. The repeal of the Offensive Behaviour at Football Act

What? Didn’t you hear? Sectarianism and bigotry has now been given the green light to prosper in Scottish football with the repeal of the OBFA. Oh, that’s right…

A law that was well-meaning in its intention, but utterly flawed and inconsistent in its conception and application. The law did little to tackle sectarianism or its root causes, lamentably, and ultimately achieved not much else than to adversely affect the employment prospects of a few young men whose conduct was deemed to be offensive. So subjective is that concept that judges couldn’t make head nor tail of how to apply the law, with one famously describing it as ‘mince’ in 2013, and all we ended up with was massive division between fans who felt persecuted and the police.

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The Scottish Parliament voted to repeal the act in January, a move welcomed by supporters. And the world kept turning.

44. The debate around Hampden and Murrayfield

New SFA chief executive Ian Maxwell has signified his intention to bring the debate over the future of the national stadium to a close by late June, with the arguments for keeping Scotland matches and major cup semi-finals and finals at Hampden or moving to Murrayfield at the end of the SFA’s current lease in 2020 rumbling on all season.

The SRU have certainly given it their best shot, and there is little doubt that the home of rugby has several practical advantages over football’s spiritual home in Glasgow. Will that be enough to trump 140 years of history? Who knows, but it now comes down to a straight shootout between the two venues, and the possibility of a radical move down the M8 may not be as fanciful as it once seemed.

43. The battle for second

Ok, it may not be a shootout for the title, but with Celtic so far ahead, it was the best we had. And there is no denying that the dramatic final few weeks of the season as Aberdeen, Rangers and Hibernian battled it out for the title of ‘best of the rest’ was compelling viewing.

It all culminated in a crazy final day of fixtures, with Hibs and Rangers sharing 10 goals in a ding-dong battle at Easter Road, only for Aberdeen to break from type and win in Glasgow – defeating Celtic by a goal to nil – to seal second place ahead of both of them yet again.

All three sides will be hoping to make more of a fist of topping the table next term, but even if they fall short of that goal, they are so evenly matched that the fight for that runners-up spot may well be the one to watch yet again.

42. Cold snap

Excruciatingly cold weather and blizzards in Scotland during winter are hardly worthy of a newsflash, but it isn’t every day you have a club CEO warning fans not to travel to a game as they would be risking their lives.

The ‘Beast from the East’ in March had Morton’s Warren Hawke sufficiently concerned to advise the Greenock club’s fans to be wary of making the journey to Glasgow’s East End for a Scottish Cup tie against Celtic, and it seemed as though plenty of supporters in both ends took his advice. And who could blame them?

This intrepid reporter was even photographed pitching in at Fir Park with shovel in hand to make sure that their own Scottish Cup quarter-final tie against Hearts went ahead as planned. Scurrilous rumours that the shovel was borrowed solely for the photo opp and returned as soon as the cameras were away are shocking, without foundation, and impossible to deny.

41. Carlos Pena

The madcap Mexican might be raking in the millions, but the mark he left on his Rangers shorts after infamously blowing his nose on them was the perfect metaphor for the mark he left on the club.

One of their highest-earning players looked unfit, disinterested and barely like a footballer at all at times during his short stay in Glasgow, before Pedro Caixinha took him to Cruz Azul with him on loan. The manager’s reward for his loyalty to his player? The bold Carlos buying six-pack of beer after training and urinating in a hotel fountain.

It may surprise you to learn that Pena was actually in the top five players in the Scottish Premiership for goals scored to minutes played, so there is a player in there, but he is a luxury and a problem that Rangers do not want or need for next season. Unfortunately for the Ibrox club, Cruz Azul want shot of him too, and he has a year left on his current megabucks deal. Whatever lies ahead of him, one thing is for sure; it won’t be dull.