Incredibly written pieces about promotion and the celebrations that ensued. It's a great achievement for a manager of limited experience in McAloone but he's more than earned the praise. It's always a sense of mixed emotions when it comes to contracts of a newly promoted side given that you are essentially releasing the same men that lifted you up, but Annan will be better off with a more open budget going forward.
Scottish Premiership: A Review

The Scottish Premiership was bound to be full of excitement this year with Celtic intent on claiming a tenth consecutive title and extending their dominance over the Scottish game. Rangers meanwhile, guided by Steven Gerrard, were keen to spoil the party.
It would be the blue-side of Glasgow that would be celebrating at the end of the season as they claimed a first Scottish Premiership title since Walter Smith's side lifted the title in 2011. The Gers stormed to their fifty-fifth success in style as they finished seventeen points clear of Neil Lennon's side, losing just three games in the process.
Celtic's misery was further compounded as they failed to claim a single victory in an Old Firm clash with Rangers prevailing in the final meeting between the two with the other three meetings all ending in a share of the points.
Gary Holt's Livingston enjoyed a fairy-tale campaign to finish the season in third-place and seal a place in next season's UEFA Europa League. Livi also claimed memorable victories over Celtic and Rangers - even beating the champions at Ibrox thanks to a goal from former Rangers midfielder Jason Holt.
Hibernian and Kilmarnock finished comfortably in fourth and fifth, respectively. As a result, they confirmed their places in the inaugural edition of the UEFA Conference League next season. Ross County rounded-off the top six.
St Johnstone's twelve-year run in the Premiership came to a crashing end as they finished bottom behind Hamilton Academical.
Callum Davidson was relived of his duties just 184 days into his reign after a run of just one league win in ten games. He was replaced by the former Icelandic international Hermann Hreiðarsson who initially looked to steady the ship at McDiarmid Park before The Saints sank to five losses in seven games to end the season, confirming their relegation on the final-day with a 1-1 draw against Hamilton.
Hamilton will join St Johnstone in the Championship next season after they lost to Hearts in the relegation-playoff. A 1-1 draw at Tynecastle was followed-up with a 2-2 draw at the Fountain of Youth Stadium. Hearts would later prevail on penalties to seal an immediate return to the Premiership and confine Academical to a return to the second-tier after a seven-year escape.
Scottish Championship: A Review

The story of the season was undoubtedly belonged to Inverness Caledonian Thistle as John Robertson's men sealed a return to the Premiership for the first-time since their relegation in 2017. The likes of James Keatings and Aaron Doran were crucial in aiding their bid to return to the top-flight as they finished seven points clear of Hearts in second.
Robbie Neilson's side deserve plenty of credit for the way they responded in light of their relegation last term. They proved to be a tricky side to master and ultimately came through the play-offs after beating both Arbroath and Hamilton on penalties.
Arbroath and Raith both claimed unlikely play-off berths at the end of the season as they edged-out the chasing pack led by Dunfermline Athletic. The pair can both be extremely pleased with their efforts as they were predicted by most to be fighting it out to survive in the second-tier with Raith in particular proving their credentials after a rather controversial promotion to the Championship last season.
The PPG (points-per-game) system, used to decide promotion and relegation at the end of the curtailed 2019/20 season in light of the coronavirus pandemic, listed Raith as champions over Falkirk by 0.03 of a point which caused significant backlash.
At the bottom, Dundee were shockingly relegated to the third-tier after finishing on a measly seventeen points. Stuart Campbell was unable to save an already-damaged ship as he replaced James McPake in January. They were relegated alongside Queen of the South who, despite navigating the semi-finals of the relegation play-offs comfortably with a 3-0 aggregate victory over Airdrieonians, lost 5-2 on aggregate to Partick Thistle.
Ladbrokes League One: A Review

Following the controversies of last season, Falkirk were able to 'write the wrongs' and seal promotion back to the Championship at the second attempt under the stewardship of David McCracken. The Bairns scored an impressive tally of forty whilst only conceding nineteen across twenty-seven games to finish five points clear at the summit.
They are, of course, accompanied by Partick Thistle who sealed promotion with a victory over Queen of the South after initially evading the challenge of East Fife with Kieron Bowie scoring the decisive goal in a 1-0 aggregate victory.
East Fife and Airdrieonians will remain in League One next season after losing-out in the play-offs. They finished comfortably ahead of Forfar Athletic in fifth who finished on thirty-one points, recording tallies of forty-nine and forty-two respectively.
Dumbarton were relegated to the fourth-tier after amassing just seventeen points and two victories in their name. It was a nightmare season from start to finish for The Sons of the Rock who will be playing at the lowest level they have played since 2009 as a result of their relegation.
Montrose finished above them in ninth, separated only by a single goal in goal-difference over Peterhead. Stuart Petrie will be a relived man as the Montrose board stuck by him in spite of a rather underwhelming campaign at Links Park Stadium.
They avoided relegation after defeating Edinburgh City in the semi-finals 3-1 on aggregate. Quinn Coulson and Iain Campbell guiding them to a 2-0 home victory after initially being held at Ainslie Park.
Queen's Park would be the opposition in the final as The Spiders coasted past Stenhousemuir to book their place in the final.
A 1-1 draw in the first-leg had the tie tightly poised in the return-leg at Hampden Park but it would be the League One side who would show their quality to run-out 2-0 winners as Lewis Milne and Quinn Coulson sealed Montrose's status for next season. Queen's Park would ultimately have to settle for yet another season in League Two.
A final point to note with regards to League Two, Albion Rovers survived relegation from the SPFL after a 4-2 aggregate victory over Bonnyrigg Rose.
Cup Competitions: A Review

The William Hill Scottish Cup threw up very little in the way of surprises en route to the final. Arbroath enjoyed perhaps the feel-good story of the competition to add to what was an incredible season for Dick Campbell in his final season in management as he bowed up in style. They beat Motherwell and Aberdeen to reach the Quarter Finals before they were ultimately dumped out by Dundee United.
Rangers would go-on to meet Celtic in the final at Hampden Park with the Scottish champions coming out victorious in a 2-1 win. A James Tavernier penalty and Ianis Hagi cancelling-out a Ryan Christie strike for Steven Gerrard's side.
In the Betfred League Cup, Celtic were surprisingly beaten by St Mirren in the second round. The Buddies would then beat Ross County to make the semi-finals before crashing out to Motherwell. Ayr United also recorded a fantastic run in the competition as they also made the last four. They ultimately lost-out 2-0 to Rangers who went on to beat Motherwell 4-2 in the final, claiming a domestic treble.
Scotland in Europe: A Review

We turn our attention to how the Scots faired against Europe's elite next. Celtic represented Scotland in the Champions League once again this year and began their campaign with a crushing victory over Sileks Krotovo of North Macedonia. They went on to beat FC Midtjylland 2-1 at Celtic Park to progress into the Third Qualifying Round where they beat CFR Cluj 4-0 thus earning a place in the Play-Offs.
Celtic would beat Qarabag of Azerbaijan 4-2 on aggregate after initially being held 2-2 at home. They were rewarded with a group containing Juventus, Manchester United and Club Brugge at the Group Stage ceremony.
Neil Lennon's side fought valiantly but would ultimately finish bottom of Group A despite victory in Glasgow against the Belgian champions alongside a point against the Italian champions, Juventus. Brugge finished ahead of Celtic on goal-difference to claim third with Juventus and Manchester United progressing as expected.
Rangers began their UEFA Europa League adventure by defeating North Macedonian opposition in Shkupi. They would then coast past Armenian side Alashkart before being paired with Sporting CP in the final qualifying round.
Sporting would prove to be a step too far for Rangers as the Scots fell to a 2-0 defeat in Lisbon with goals from Jovane Cabral and Zouhair Feddal.
Motherwell reached the Third Qualifying stage after a 3-0 victory over Maltese outfit Sirens and an extra-time triumph over Maribor. They would crash-out of the competition thanks to a 2-0 loss at Fir Park to Jablonec of Czech Republic.
Aberdeen fell a stage earlier after they initially beat Icelandic side Breiðablik 2-0 at Pittodrie before losing 3-1 to Beitar Jerusalem of Israel.
Scotland's overall coefficient remains unchanged with the Scottish Premiership remaining fourteenth in the overall standings behind the Danish Superliga.
Comments
Jack: Much appreciated mate. You know that means a lot coming from yourself - mutual appreciation
A new challenge awaits in League One where survival is bound to be the main objective. It's obvious that he felt that a step-up in quality meant a lot of his squad were suddenly surplus to requirements. You're quite right in stating that it frees up the wage-bill. Annan had one of the smallest budgets in League Two so you can only imagine the financial challenge they face in the coming season.