As a whole, Scottish clubs were not at their best and even the reorganized for that very reason Premier Division showed the problems: the 10-team league was sharply divided in two unequal halves. Both groups were further divided inside themselves: two of the lower half were hopelessly bellow everybody else.
Heart of Midlothian was dead last with 18 points. Their new manager, Bobby Moncur, pronounced a chilling evaluation of the team after watching their first training session under him: ‘I left a better club’, meaning English Third Division Carlisle United. It was also an uncomfortable judgment of present-day situation of Scottish football: far behind English football, going even farther away. As for the Hearts, Moncur was right… the team did not improve a bit and after returning from second division, they were going to it immediately.
Kilmarnock finished 9th with 19 points and were relegated as well. They lasted 2 seasons in the reduced top division, but unlike Hearts, they were not a team with a great past and more or less expected to go down: the reformed top division really reduced the number of clubs like Kilmarnock – those, who a few year back, in the original 18-team first division, had sleepy life in mid-table.
Greenock Morton was 8th, just above relegation zone, but it was not really so – they finished with 28 points, 9 more than Kilmarnock. Never in danger. Normally, ‘the Ton’ would be one of expected outsiders, but they enjoyed a good spell three years in a row already. A good spell for a small club, that is – maintaining a place in the top division was their best and it was more, compared to the fate of Hibernian, Dundee, and Heart of Midlothian.
The same applies to Airdrieonians as well. They were 7th this season with 29 points, promoted the previous year and able to keep a place in the top league at least for one more season.
Partick Thistle – the best of the lower half of the league: 6th with 30 points. The part-timers were true heroes – having Celtic and Rangers as neighbours gave them no chance at all for having a strong team. They coped, but just to be in the top league was heroic effort. And it was also showing the state of Scottish football: even drastically reduced league struggled. The team just above Partick Thistle finished the season with 43 points!
Dundee United, one of the solid teams at the time, was 5th , but it was matter of luck only – one point was the difference between them and the bronze medalists. Not everything was bad in Scotland – Dundee United, along with Aberdeen, was the good news in the last 3 years and not even reaching its peak.
St. Mirren enjoyed their strong strong period – unlike Aberdeen and Dundee United , they were not expected to last among the strongest. The previous year they were 3rd, this season they finished 4th, but they lost bronze only on worse goal-difference.
Glasgow Rangers got the 3rd place with 44 points and better goal-difference than St. Mirren. A great disappointment for their fans, but the sad reality was also clear – Rangers was in lean period, started 1979 and the end of it was not in sight. Fans wanted titles, but the club had no team of winners and was not going to have one soon.
Aberdeen was the name of the time – young, bright, ambitious, and more than promising. 17 players of the squad played for various Scottish national teams.
No wander Aberdeen left Rangers in the dust, finishing 5 points ahead. But it was not yet a team at the peak of its power and this was not their season: they were second, but very distant second – 7 points behind the champions.
Familiar… one more title for Celtic, easily achieved. Great run, happy fans, Charlie Nicholas the bright star, the nearest opponent – 7 points behind. But this was not a great team.