Alan Archibald admitted he was as frustrated as any fan after Partick Thistle’s Premiership clash with Aberdeen at Firhill was postponed last night.

It is the second week in-a-row that Thistle have been left kicking their heels after their match against Hearts at Tynecastle was postponed last week, and their fifth cancellation in all this season.

Aberdeen fans have criticised the decision to hold a pitch inspection at 3.30 in the afternoon, but Thistle maintain that the decision was based upon balancing the best possible chance of the game going ahead and the least possible inconvenience for supporters.

For Thistle manager Archibald, the latest cancellation leaves him wary of the psychological impact it could have on his players as they watch their team slide down the Premiership standings through no fault of their own.

“The most frustrating thing is we can’t do anything about our league position,” he said.

“Every time our games are off there seems to be someone winning a game and moving above us.

“Psychologically these teams are getting a march on us and there’s nothing we can do about it.

“It upsets our training pattern too. It’s so stop-start and with the St Johnstone game coming up on Tuesday night we obviously have to try and prepare for that.

“It’s far from ideal but we just have to get on with it.

“Last week our pitch was playable and our game got called off at Tynecastle, but every time we’ve had a home game there seems to have been torrential rain.

“We’ve got everybody fit just now, but who knows if that will be the case by the time we get to play the games.

“They have been called off when we’re in good form as well which doesn’t help, so fingers crossed we can get the St Johnstone game on and get some points on the board again.

“It’s very difficult, and it can really upset your momentum.

“It’s not helping with cashflow either, because I think we’ve only had two home games over the last couple of months.

“We need to spend money on the pitch too and we might not even have time to fix it properly in the summer with the changes to the fixtures now.

“The problems are piling up, that’s for sure.”

The recent spate of call-offs in Scottish football have led to the resurfacing of the debate over artificial pitches, but despite being the victim of the most postponements this season, Archibald maintains a good grass surface is always preferable.

“I’ve nothing against astroturf pitches, we’ve been training on one for three or four months, but in the top-flight I’d rather we played on grass,” he said.

“The problem we have is that our pitch is so old. We do work on our pitch every year, but it’s probably I think we’ve had the same pitch for about 20 years.

“The majority of our pitch is ok and it played fine in the Motherwell game. It’s just a drainage issue we’ve got in the wide areas and it’s a problem that needs addressed.

“We didn’t have any problems last year though or the year before that, so we’ve been really unlucky with the fixtures.

“If it’s dry the day of the game then it gives us a chance. We’ve obviously got a problem in the far area of the pitch and if we get heavy rain the day of the game then it might put it in doubt.

“On the day of the Motherwell game the groundstaff had a chance to work on it, and if they can do the same again then hopefully we can get it on.

“To be fair, our pitch withstood the battering from the snow for the Dundee game when a lot of games were off.”