PARTICK THISTLE...................................... 1

PARTICK THISTLE and their manager Alan Archibald have hit out at the SPFL over the last-minute call to play yesterday’s 1-1 draw at Tynecastle.

The game with Hearts was only given the green light at eight o’clock on the morning of the game after a safety check cleared the Edinburgh club’s new main stand to finally be open for business despite not being completely finished.

It prompted Thistle to release a statement calling for an ‘extensive review’ by the SPFL into the circumstances of why the decision on whether the game could proceed or not was left so late, with Archibald throwing his weight behind the appeal on the back of his team silencing the 17000 in attendance.

“Of course I totally back the statement,” he said. “It wouldn’t have happened had Rangers been coming here, would it? Let’s be honest – and 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 on Tuesday or Wednesday just as we do with Scottish Cup replays. That date is always proposed before the game.”

Fears began to grow during the week that the new £12million structure would not be granted a temporary occupation certificate, with confirmation of that only arriving after 9pm on Saturday night.

Kick off was delayed by 15 minutes yesterday due to queues outside the Wheatfield Stand opposite while huge internal work remains uncompleted inside the main stand’s corridors, lounges and facilities.

“It is unacceptable that there was uncertainty about whether a top flight game would go ahead less than 18 hour before kick-off,” said the Firhill statement. 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, we will be asking the SPFL for an extensive review into the circumstances that allowed this situation to arise.”