It is always disappointing for a footballer when a game is postponed, but according to goalkeeper Tomas Cerny, Partick Thistle were doubly frustrated with Saturday’s late call-off at Tynecastle. That’s because there was a feeling in the Firhill camp that they were catching their high-flying opponents at just the right time.
Cerny isn't for a moment suggesting any funny business on the part of Hearts, but the Thistle number one can’t help but feel an opportunity may have passed his side by with the game scheduled in the middle of a hectic week for the Jambos, and at a time when they had key players missing.
He said: "It was very frustrating, we were ready for the game. We were just turning the corner towards Tynecastle and ‘Off the Ball’ was on the radio on the bus, and that’s when we heard it was off. It was very surprising and disappointing.
“We thought there was no doubt over it before the game, and with the weather during the week being so good it was very surprising.
“It’s not great for us because we thought that with Hearts playing up at Ross County on Wednesday night, which is a difficult game with a lot of travelling, it was probably a good time to play them.
“They might have had one eye on the game against Hibs on Tuesday night as well, so the game being called off was a bit disappointing.
“It probably suited Hearts better than us for the game to be off, but I don’t want to start any speculation over it!
“We can’t really complain, because a couple of our games have been called off at Firhill too, but definitely we would have rather have played the game on Saturday.
“I feel for the fans massively. My wife and my father-in-law were travelling with my son to the game, and they were already in Edinburgh, and they were obviously gutted that the game wasn’t on.
“I can imagine that the other fans who had spent a lot of money on petrol, trains or buses to get through to Edinburgh would have been hugely disappointed too.”
Partick Thistle's focus is now shifting towards a date with second-placed Aberdeen under the Firhill lights on Friday night.
He says that it is a compliment to how well Aberdeen are doing that Thistle will prepare for the match in the same manner as they would if facing champions Celtic.
“We felt that the game up at Pittodrie was probably more difficult than the game we played at Parkhead this year,” he said.
“Celtic are still the biggest club in the country, but now we approach games against Aberdeen and Celtic in the same way. They are both really strong teams."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here