PARTICK Thistle and their manager Alan Archibald have hit out at the SPFL over the last-minute decision on whether their match against Hearts at Tynecastle could go ahead.
The game was only given the green light at 8am yesterday, after a safety check cleared the way for the Edinburgh club’s new Main Stand to open for business despite not being finished. Thistle, who left Gorgie with a point thanks to Kris Doolan’s equaliser in a 1-1 draw, released a statement calling for an “extensive review” by the league on why the decision was left so late.
Archibald said after the game: “Of course I totally back the statement. It wouldn’t have happened had Rangers been coming here, would it? That’s not a wee club mentality, but more to do with the traffic and personnel that would have been coming. They wouldn’t have allowed it to go to the last minute.
“It would have been better to have shown more common sense, rather than Hearts having to do the work they had to do to get the game on. They were rushing about when we could have a date [tomorrow] or Wednesday just as we do with Scottish Cup replays.”
Fears began to grow during the week that the new £12 million structure would not be granted a temporary occupation certificate, which only happened on Saturday night. Kick-off was delayed by 15 minutes yesterday due to queues outside the Wheatfield Stand opposite, while huge internal work remained uncompleted inside the Main Stand’s corridors, lounges and facilities.
Thistle’s statement before the match said: “It is unacceptable that there was uncertainty about whether a top-flight game would go ahead less than 18 hours before kick-off.
“It is not right to treat players, staff and, most importantly, the supporters of both clubs in this way. It is a situation that never should have been allowed to develop – and it must not happen to any club in future.
“On Monday [today], we will be asking the SPFL for an extensive review into the circumstances that allowed this situation to arise. Specifically, we will be asking why it was allowed to continue to such a late stage.”
Hearts owner Ann Budge defended the decision not to postpone the game when it became clear that Hearts faced a race against the clock.
“From my perspective I reckoned it was important to all the fans and to both teams, that we really go for it,” she said. “I felt I had a duty to really push it to the wire to try and get this game on because so many people would have had different problems.
“I was in constant touch with Partick Thistle and in daily touch with the SPFL, keeping them informed. The easy option for me would have been to say on Monday or Wednesday, ‘this is too difficult let’s just postpone the game’.”
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