The record · Completed season
2022-23
A third-place finish after a January managerial change, against the backdrop of a record sale and a cup shock.
Expectations
The baseline going in
A top-six baseline after a tenth-place finish, with a more settled side and a return to European qualification.
Top six, with a cup run. This is an analyst-set baseline, not a published club target.
Jim Goodwin was dismissed on 28 January 2023 after the 6-0 defeat at Hibernian. Barry Robson took interim charge on 29 January and was appointed permanently on 1 May 2023.
Measured
The league record
Manager records are league-only. Cup and European results are curated exit rounds, not match-level manager records.
The season
Managers and the within-season split
| Manager | Dates | Pld | W-D-L | GF | GA | Pts | PPG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jim Goodwin | 2022-07-31 – 2023-01-28 | 23 | 9-2-12 | 35 | 43 | 29 | 1.26 |
| Barry RobsonInterim | 2023-02-01 – 2023-04-23 | 10 | 8-0-2 | 17 | 9 | 24 | 2.40 |
| Barry Robson | 2023-05-07 – 2023-05-27 | 5 | 1-1-3 | 4 | 8 | 4 | 0.80 |
Interim spells are separate records. A match in a gap is not assigned to the nearest manager.
Cups
Domestic runs
- Scottish Cup · Fourth round eliminated Lost 1-0 away to Darvel on 23 January 2023, one of the biggest shocks in Scottish Cup history.
- League Cup · Semi-final eliminated Lost to Rangers after extra time at Hampden; Anthony Stewart was sent off.
Europe
Continental runs
Not in European competition.
Recruitment
What came in and went out
Estimated net is a range from public/reported fee anchors and a transparent age, position and market model. It is not an audited balance; free transfers count as zero fee and loan fees are excluded.
Source market
- scotland · 1 arrivals 6%
- england · 0 arrivals 0%
- europe · 1 arrivals 6%
- other · 0 arrivals 0%
- unknown · 14 arrivals 88%
14 arrivals have no resolved source market.
Age at arrival
Median 22.5 · average 24.1 · coverage 100%.
Disclosed fees only. Undisclosed is never zero and is excluded from the totals. Age is shown only where a birth date is known.
Key business
Historical transfer rows are curated partial before 2024-25. Key business includes Calvin Ramsay to Liverpool for an initial £4.2 million and Lewis Ferguson to Bologna for a reported £3 million. The full set is in the transfer register. Full transfer register →
Style
How the season looked
Opponent-unadjusted team proxies from league match rows. Not xG and not a tactical model. Possession is provider-reported only.
The Robson improvement is a result pattern, not proof of a settled style. The measured proxies show what changed; the reading stays separate.
Possession is not shown unless the provider team-statistics backfill is available; it is never inferred.
Selection
Who played, and how old they were
Formation mix
- 3-5-2 · 17 fixtures (37%)
- 4-2-3-1 · 11 fixtures (24%)
- No grid · 8 fixtures (17%)
- 4-4-2 · 3 fixtures (7%)
- 3-1-4-2 · 3 fixtures (7%)
- 4-3-3 · 2 fixtures (4%)
Top by starts
| Player | Starts | Mins |
|---|---|---|
| Y. Ramadani | 44 | 3929 |
| R. McCrorie | 41 | 3544 |
| B. Miovski | 41 | 3207 |
| K. Roos | 38 | 3420 |
| L. Scales | 38 | 3392 |
| L. Clarkson | 35 | 2871 |
| Duk | 32 | 2850 |
| A. Stewart | 29 | 2531 |
| J. Hayes | 28 | 2460 |
| M. Kennedy | 23 | 1772 |
| H. Coulson | 22 | 1890 |
Formation is the kick-off shape. Ages use the season roster or a known birth date; missing ages are excluded, not filled. Top-by-starts is not a claim that those players started together.
The lineup backfill is available or partial; selection metrics are measured where coverage allows and the fraction is shown.
Academy
Youth pathway
Curated debuts
No curated academy debut is recorded for this season.
Measured new players
- K. Roos · 10 Jul 2022
- A. Stewart · 10 Jul 2022
- L. Scales · 10 Jul 2022
- J. Richardson · 10 Jul 2022
- M. Hancock · 10 Jul 2022
- J. Milne · 10 Jul 2022
- Y. Ramadani · 13 Jul 2022
- Duk · 19 Jul 2022
- B. Miovski · 24 Jul 2022
- H. Coulson · 31 Jul 2022
- C. Roberts · 31 Jul 2022
- L. Clarkson · 6 Aug 2022
- S. Morris · 13 Aug 2022
- G. Shinnie · 7 Jan 2023
- P. Myslovič · 18 Jan 2023
- A. MacDonald · 1 Feb 2023
- M. Pollock · 1 Feb 2023
- D. Markanday · 1 Feb 2023
- J. Gorter · 4 Feb 2023
- A. Bavidge · 4 Feb 2023
Curated debuts are explicit club/academy records. Measured new players are first appearances in the covered history, not career debuts.
Off the pitch
Staff changes
- 28 Jan 2023 Jim Goodwin · Manager Out dismissed
- 29 Jan 2023 Barry Robson · Interim manager InInterim
- 27 Feb 2023 Alan Burrows · Chief executive In
- 1 May 2023 Barry Robson · Interim manager OutInterim interim_end
- 1 May 2023 Barry Robson · Manager In
- 1 May 2023 Steve Agnew · Assistant manager In
The read · fitba assessment
An assessment, not a measurement
What worked. The January change produced a third-place finish and European qualification. The club also realised significant value on Calvin Ramsay and Lewis Ferguson in the same season.
What did not. The Scottish Cup exit at Darvel was a genuine shock, and the League Cup semi-final was lost after extra time. The league recovery did not remove the cup vulnerability.
The trade-off. Selling two young assets and still finishing third is the strongest single piece of evidence for the trading model's sporting upside. It does not show that the model reliably produces third place; the next season fell to seventh.
This season is the model's best case: a mid-season reset, a young squad improving, a third-place finish and two significant sales. The cup shock is the counterweight. The record should hold both: the trading model can coexist with a strong league season, and it can still produce a one-off humiliation.
Look ahead. The 2023-24 season would bring European group-stage football, a League Cup final and a seventh-place league finish, with three managers.
Coverage
What is measured, curated and missing
- League record: available
- Manager records: league only
- Transfers: curated_partial
- Lineups: partial · 46/52 fixtures
- Unattributed league matches: 0
League-only manager records. Cup/Europe runs are curated exit rounds. Selection is measured where historical lineups exist.
← 2021-22 · 2023-24 → · The record · Results and fixtures
Provenance
How this page is sourced
Dataset 2026-10-27T12:06:31+00:00-c598315. Sources and coverage are listed below; the page keeps its own source and uncertainty labels.
- Cormack-era historical record · mixed · active
- League results, historical · football_data_uk · active
- Published transfer register · curated · active
- Medium and long-term themes · derived · active
Definitions: history.baseline · history.coverage · history.defeats · history.scorecard · history.season · history.season-document · history.staff
Corrections and changes are recorded on Corrections and contact.
Cite this page
Cormack era. Dataset 2026-10-27T12:06:31+00:00-c598315, as of 2026-10-27T12:06:31+00:00. Sources: mixed; football-data.co.uk; curated; derived. Definitions: history.baseline; history.coverage; history.defeats; history.scorecard; history.season; history.season-document; history.staff.