PARTICK Thistle and Hearts won’t find out until this lunchtime at the earliest if Sunday’s scheduled Ladbrokes Premiership clash at Tynecastle will go ahead – but the Maryhill outfit have pledged to fight the matter with the SPFL in the event the match is cancelled at the 11th hour and they are forced to squeeze another match into an already jam-packed festive fixture schedule.
Despite even youth team players being engaged in tasks such as putting numbers on seats this week, the club’s new £14m stand had still not been granted a safety certificate last night, with Hearts owner Ann Budge scheduling construction staff to work through the night – just as they did on Monday and Wednesday evening – to get the project finished. A final attempt to convince Edinburgh City Council’s assessors that the structure can safely be occupied will come this lunchtime - should their work fail, the club will contact Partick Thistle and the SPFL to formally request a postponement.
Thistle too are desperate to get the match played, as failure to do so could see them play just once in November, with eight games already scheduled for the month of December. Having dealt constructively with Hearts’ request to reverse their home and away fixtures to facilitate the stadium upgrade in the first place, manager Alan Archibald understandably baulks at the suggestion he should be asked to fit a ninth match into that period and questions whether the issues are financial rather than footballing ones.
“If the game is called off then it would absolutely kill us in terms of fixtures because it would mean just one game in November,” said Archibald. “We helped Hearts out in the first place by reversing the fixtures because that gave us a tough November with three away games to Rangers, Celtic and Hearts. We’ve got eight games in December as it stands and if this game goes then having another one is no use to us. It wouldn’t suit us at all and we’d fight it.
“I’ve been told BetFred Cup games have been played at Tynecastle this season and asked why it can’t be the case on Sunday,” he added. “It is probably down to a finance thing but it’s unfair if we’re forced to plan nine games in December just to help Hearts out financially. I don’t know about the safety issues in terms of getting to the ground if work is ongoing - I just know games were played there earlier this season.”
The difficulties of the situation for players and coaches is one thing; it is hardly ideal for supporters to find out at less than 24 hours’ notice whether the match will go ahead either. “As far as we’ve been told the game is going ahead so we’ve trained towards that but it’s impossible to avoid the stories,” said Archibald. “We’ve tried to put out the players’ minds but every day you pick up the newspaper or turn on the TV and there’s another story about a possible delay in the stand opening.
“We’re in the same boat as Hearts where we just want the game on and our whole week has been working on the shape of the team to try and win the game,” he added. “It’s probably more important for us for it to go ahead because we don’t have a game next week either. I want the game on so I’m happy to give it as long as we can although I accept there will come a point where it would have to be called off.
“The uncertainty over this game isn’t fair on the fans because they might have adjusted plans for the weekend. When I say I would rather the SPFL didn’t step in and make a decision that is from a selfish, football point of view that I want the game on. But it’s not fair on supporters if it’s a late call on Saturday night that it’s off and plans are up in the air.”
"We’ve come a long way,” said Hearts manager Craig Levein. "I was down on Thursday and I thought it looked good. Even the [Hearts] kids were down putting numbers on seats! We have basically planned for the game going ahead at Tynecastle, so we are hopeful that will be the case.
“The new stand will make a difference, the atmosphere will be amazing," he added. "It really does feel more enclosed, and the noise will stay in because of the shape of the new stand. It looks brilliant. But if it is off, it is off - and we will have to take it on the chin. The difficulty with that is that it will slot in somewhere and the other teams round about us will have an advantage because we will be cramming three games into a week.”
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