Scots sides pay penalty on the road
IT’S official - home teams DO get more penalties than away teams.
Almost 60 per cent of the 42 penalties awarded in the Premiership this season have gone to the home side which means referees have only given visiting teams 17 spot-kicks while the hosts have had 25.
Partick Thistle and Ross County have yet to be awarded an away penalty and only have one each at home.
They also averaged 50 per cent and 47 per cent possession respectively according to Opta. That means they’ve gone an average of 1215 minutes and 1142 minutes of possession per penalty awarded.
More possession doesn’t necessarily translate into more time in the box and some teams are less attacking away from home.
It’s in stark contrast to Celtic and Hearts who have both been awarded seven penalties each, the league’s high.
Hearts average 48 per cent possession and Celtic 49 per cent, meaning they’ve had a penalty awarded once every 166 and 170 minutes of possession.
Celtic have massively “out-shot” everyone with 387 digs on goal (excluding blocked shots). Rangers follow with 323 and Hearts have 314.
But the Ibrox side have only had three penalties despite having the second highest number of shots in the league and the second highest average possession, 52 per cent.
Rangers have therefore averaged one penalty for every 421 minutes of possession – the sixth longest time in the league. Team Penalties in league matches Partick Thistle 1 Ross County 1 Kilmarnock 2 Dundee 2 Hamilton 2 Rangers 3 Motherwell 3 St Johnstone 4 Aberdeen 5 Inverness CT 5 Celtic 7 Hearts 7 Club Mins of possession per penalty Partick Thistle Ross County Kilmarnock Dundee Hamilton Rangers Motherwell St Johnstone Aberdeen Inverness CT Celtic Hearts 1215 1142 619 571 558 421 405 303 281 247 170 166