The 2009/10 SPL season kicks off with the fixture that ended the 2008/09 season.
Champions Rangers begin their defence of the SPL crown against the team they defeated to seal the double, the league flag will be unfurled at a packed Ibrox stadium infront of a crowd who will be hoping the team can put on a performance radically better than they did on that sunny day in May when Nacho Novo’s strike was the only difference between the Scottish Cup winners and a Falkirk team who played them off the park.
Kevin Thomson returns ahead of schedule after an injury that ruled him out of the last half of the double winning season, his return has most of the Rangers support confident that he can bolster the midfield and show the form alongside Pedro Mendes that was so successful in the previous season. Although they go into the season with no new faces the champions have brought through several youth players during preseason and they will be pushing for a place, preseason has seen the emergence of a rejuvenated team, wins against PSG and Man City seen the growth of an attacking threat through players like Davis and Mendes along with a fully fit Stevie Naismith who is clearly hungry to justify his early promise and most surprisingly Lee McCulloch who has started to look like a £2m player.
Falkirk have a new look from the team that suffered glorious defeat in the showpiece of Scottish football, fresh from a successful relegation battle they have a new management team in place with former youth coach Eddie May taking the reins, bringing with him ex defender Steven Pressley who retired after the cup final as assistant and former manager Alex Smith as director of football. The new manager has started a clear out that has seen quite a few first team players released from the club. The summer has seen The Bairns defeated in Europe by Vaduz of Lichtenstein and the return of Portuguese midfielder Vitor Lima after a short spell in Greece, he is the 6th signing after Brian McLean, Ryan Flynn, Marc Twaddle, Alex MacDonald and Danijel Marceta.
To read more on the opening fixtures click here
