We’re just beyond the halfway point in the Premiership season now and the competition is heating up as we go into the final run-in of the season. Rangers are determined to push Celtic all the way in the title race this season; Aberdeen, Kilmarnock and Hearts are all competing for a European spot while at the other end, teams like Dundee and St Mirren are just hoping to survive.

Most teams prefer to rely on moments of quality in order to win games, but football is a sport of fine margins and opposition mistakes can be just as crucial in determining the winner of a match. Most managers understand this and make exploiting an opposing team’s errors as high a priority as maximising your own side’s strengths.

To that end, we’ve been wondering: which side makes the most mistakes in the Scottish top flight? We’ve created our very own incompetence league table, where teams accrue points for costly errors in a bid to see which side has made the most blunders this season.

We’ll be awarding points - somewhat arbitrarily - for various mishaps that have taken place throughout the season and one club will take home the inglorious honour of being named the Premiership’s Most Incompetent Team. Without any further ado, let the finger-pointing commence.

Own goals

This feels like a fairly obvious place to start. After all, is there any greater ignominy in football than turning the ball into your own net? You harm your own team and benefit the opposition in one (mis-timed) fell swoop. We’re going to penalise each club 10 points for every time one of their players has bundled the ball into their own net, given the relative severity of their incompetence.

Dundee are leading the way in this regard with three own goals this season but Genseric Kusunga in particular deserves his fair share of the limelight here. The 30-year-old has two own goals to his name so far this season, which is fairly impressive going considering that Hamilton are the only other club to score as many. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Dundee have raced into an early lead in our incompetence standings.

Missed penalties

We all know it’s pretty galling to miss a penalty. We’ve all been there. It sounds easy, and the odds are stacked massively in the taker’s favour. You’re twelve yards out, there’s only one player blocking the goal, and it’s a pretty big goal. Penalty takers are always expected to score and when they don’t, the feeling of frustration is palpable.

We’re going to dish out five points for each penalty that a club has missed this season, mainly because that’s what we feel like. It feels harsh to equate them to own goals, but they’re still pretty bad. So five points it is.

Dundee have extended their lead at the top of our table here, having missed three penalties so far this season, but St Johnstone’s inability to convert spot kicks makes for impressive viewing too. On four occasions this campaign, Tommy Wright’s side have spurned opportunities from 12 yards and they’ve shot up into joint-third place as a result.

Red cards

It’s always disheartening seeing your team reduced to 10 men with a significant portion of the match still to be played. Tactical changes are required, substitutions often have to be made and a dismissal leaves your team at a serious disadvantage for the remainder of the game. It doesn’t help when referees are dishing out cards left, right and centre without the slightest regard for consistency, either. We’re going to award five points for every red card received by a team this season.

Every team in the Premiership has seen a sending off at some point this season and now every side has points on the board in the Incompetence League. Dundee are still gallantly leading the way, with Rangers, Hamilton and Hearts leading the chasing pack. Rangers have picked up quite a few points here, in no small part down to Alfredo Morelos’ apparent determination to be sent off every time he plays Aberdeen.

Games lost when leading

Holding onto a lead is a fairly basic principle of football and there’s little worse than seeing your team do so, only to throw it away and end the match with nothing. For the sheer frustration this evokes in supporters, we’re handing out a hefty 20 points for every time a Premiership club has been leading a match that they’ve went on to lose.

Things are really heating up in our table now. St Mirren are the worst offenders here, losing from winning positions on three occasions so far this campaign, and have jumped up the rankings accordingly. Dundee have been knocked off their perch by Hamilton, who now enjoy a five point advantage in the gaffe table.

Stoppage time goals

Conceding a last-gasp goal is usually a painful experience for punters and, like chucking away a winning position, is a particularly disheartening sight. We’re going to allocate five points for every instance where a team has let a goal in in stoppage time.

Again, Hamilton have let themselves down here and are starting to create a bit of breathing space in the Incompetence League. A 15-point gap has opened up at the top and the Lanarkshire club are fast-approaching the 100-point mark.

Offsides

It can be hard to be in the right place at the right time, but if you’re a striker, then it’s kind of your job. Being flagged offside immediately turns possession over to the opposition, as well as squandering any goalscoring opportunity that may have been on the cards prior to the linesman raising his flag. For that reason, we’re awarding a point for each time a player has been caught on the wrong side of the opposing team’s defence this season.

Hamilton have maintained their lead at the top but Kilmarnock surely deserve a special mention here, having been caught offside more than any other team this season. Hibernian and Livingston are particularly guilty in this regard as well and have shot up the standings, but Accies look like they could go all the way here.

Misplaced passes

Distribution in football is an art form and while there are those that seemingly never misplace a pass, there are plenty of others who often struggle to pick out a team-mate. Gifting possession to the opposition is a fairly regular occurrence and it feels a little harsh to penalise this too heavily; after all, this happens to everyone, in every game. But this is the Incompetence League, and there is no room for sentiment here. We’re allocating teams a point for every misplaced pass a side averages over the course of a game.

Livingston are the greatest offenders here, surrendering possession 79 times per game on average, while at the other end of the spectrum we have Celtic, who misplace 67 passes per 90 minutes.

And here we have our final table! Hamilton are leading the way at this stage of the season, with Dundee and St Mirren hot on their tales in the Incompetence League title race. Aberdeen can hold their heads high at the bottom of our league and will undoubtedly feel incredibly proud of their achievement in our arbitrary and ultimately meaningless table. We’ve still got about three months or so of howlers, gaffes and slip-ups to look forward to, so it’s all still to play for in the Incompetence League. We’ll let you know the updated standings at the end of the season.