Myth and reality about added time in Scottish Premiership

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The Celtic Star

·16 febbraio 2026

Myth and reality about added time in Scottish Premiership

“It’s not fair, Celtic keep getting loads of injury time. The referees are helping them”…

The scoreboard at Rugby Park. Kilmarnock 2 Celtic 3. Scottish Premiership. Sunday 15 February 2026. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

You can tell how much Celtic’s recent run of late winners has sickened some people, so much so that they are now attempting to build a false narrative of refereeing assistance. The only problem with this? In fact, Celtic games are the shortest in the league!

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Using stats from the excellent and detailed Wyscout website it is possible to look at the average length of a game this season in the Scottish Premiership. This is based on available figures up to 15 February 2026.

In summary, the average length of a league game in Scotland is 97 minutes and 16 seconds. But the breakdown per team is particularly interesting.

If we constructed a Scottish League game table based on average minutes per game, it would look like this (minutes/seconds):

Livingston, 98.07 Dundee United, 97.53 Aberdeen, 97.53 Rangers, 97.41 Hearts, 97.30 Dundee, 97.09 St Mirren, 97.02 Hibernian, 97.00 Falkirk, 96.58 Motherwell, 96.52 Kilmarnock, 96.44 Celtic, 96.35

In reality – and despite the false claims and bleating of cheating – Celtic games are the shortest! The only surprise is that this is the case despite the huge amounts of timewasting that Celtic face every time they play.

On the other hand, theRangers and Hearts – Celtic’s two main title rivals – are well up the table when it comes to length of games. And despite Neil McCann’s gripes on Sunday, even Kilmarnock are ahead of Celtic when it comes to this.

On various occasions this season, some games have even gone over the 100-minute mark. That’s been the case for THREE Celtic League games (away to Dundee and home wins over Motherwell and Livingston).

However, 100+ minute matches are even more common elsewhere. Livingston have had seven such games and five times it’s been the case for Aberdeen, Hearts and Hibs. Dundee United, Rangers and Falkirk have each had FOUR such matches

In terms of the longest game this season, that was a 1-1 draw between Hearts and Dundee United back in November (109 minutes). Falkirk have twice had 104-minute games, and Rangers have played two 102-minute matches (both versus Livingston).

The longest league game involving Celtic this season was 101 minutes, which came in the 3-2 victory over Motherwell in October. This, of course, was a game where Motherwell were chasing an equaliser following Daizen Maeda’s late goal.

So, to summarise, Celtic games (on average) last for less time than all other Scottish League teams. There is no mystery to this, no refereeing help involved. Any injury time played gives an opportunity for either side to get a winner, not just Celtic.

Maybe other teams just need to start scoring their own late goals…

Matthew Marr

Seven Minutes added at Rugby Park as Martin O’Neill looks on. Kilmarnock 2 Celtic 3. Scottish Premiership. Sunday 15 February 2026. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

READ THIS…Kilmarnock 2-3 Celtic – It’s time for some Definitive Ratings

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Matthew’s debut Celtic book titled ‘The Bould Bhoys – Glory to their name’ was published by Celtic Star Books last year and is available to order HERE. This brilliant book is also available on Amazon Kindle for just £3.49 and includes all photo sections that appear in the hardback edition.

Matthew Marr with his debut Celtic book, Glory to their name, which tells the story of Celtic’s first ever title win. Photo The Celtic Star

Celtic in the Thirties by Celtic Historian Matt Corr is published in two volumes by Celtic Star Books.