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With the club celebrating having now played 150 league games in the SPFL, we have already published two special features highlighting the appearance and goalscoring achievements of the stalwarts who have guided Cove Rangers to unparalleled heights.

While everyone connected with the club gets disappointed when results do not go our way, it is worth dwelling on just how successful Cove have been in the years since securing promotion via the pyramid playoffs in 2019 under John Sheran.

Of the five clubs who have joined the SPFL following the introduction of the end of season shootout we have, by some distance and without doubt, made the biggest impact.

Edinburgh City were the first side to take advantage of the playoffs, securing their place in 2016, but it was not until six years later they stepped up to the third tier, a position they look likely to relinquish this time round.

Kelty Hearts made it in 2020, and like us, went on to win League Two at the first time of asking. They have since established themselves in League One, finishing eighth last year, and appear likely to achieve a similar position in the current campaign.

Bonnyrigg Rose followed twelve months later and after only just preserving their SPFL status are again hovering close to the playoff trap door, while The Spartans, having come up last summer, are well placed for a top four finish.

During Cove’s five year spell in the SPFL the club has won two promotions and two league titles under Paul Hartley, lost narrowly in the 2020/21 playoffs, and enjoyed a season operating in the Championship. It was a tough campaign, which ended in relegation, but it was a remarkable achievement by the players and management to reach the second tier just three years after playing in the Highland League.

The 150 league games have thrown up a variety of facts, figures and statistics.

Of those matches, there have been eleven when the side has scored four or more goals, and a further twenty-six in which they have netted three times, while at the other end of the pitch, we have recorded a total of fifty clean sheets, with club legend Stuart McKenzie responsible for thirty-nine of those.

The big keeper’s total includes an incredible seventeen clean sheets in just thirty-one league games in 2021/22, the season in which he also scored his one and only league goal, a late winner against Peterhead at Balmoor.

Our longest run without defeat in the SPFL stretched from a 4-2 loss at East Fife in League One on the 16^th of October 2021 all the way through to the 6^th of August 2022, when we went down 1-0 to Morton at Cappielow. The unbeaten sequence spanned a remarkable twenty-seven games and saw us clinch both the League One title and promotion to the Championship.

Our record defeat came in January 2023, a painful 6-0 loss at the hands of Queen’s Park, while our biggest win in the SPFL was on March 10^th, 2020, on the final evening of that shortened season, when courtesy of an outstanding performance, the side thrashed Stirling Albion 7-1 with Megginson and Masson each scoring twice.

We also hit seven earlier this season in the 7-2 success over Edinburgh City, the highest scoring match we have been involved in since joining the league.

OVERALL RECORD

SEASON	P	W	D	L	F-A	PTS
2019-20	28	22	2	4	76-34	68
2020-21	22	10	6	6	28-18	36
2021-22	36	23	10	3	73-32	79
2022-23	36	7	10	19	38-75	31
2023-24	28	11	7	10	44-43	40
TOTALS	150	73	35	42	259-202	254

Overall, the club has a win rate of 48.67%, an incredible statistic, and have lost just over a quarter of league games played.

The 150 matches have seen the side score an average of 1.73 goals per game and they can boast a goal difference of +57, while they have picked up an average of 1.69 points from each match.

Those figures will not have been bettered by many other SPFL teams over the same period.

Another milestone ticked off for the club; now we all look forward to the next 150 games and continued success for Cove Rangers in the SPFL.

**In addition, we have featured in two playoff matches, the 4-3 aggregate defeat to Airdrieonians at the end of the 2020/21 season. Those have not been included in any of the above statistics, which relate only to regular league games.

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