Partick Thistle manager Alan Archibald has criticised the SPFL as the fixture row rumbles on, insisting that smaller clubs like his own tend to be the ones to suffer rather than their larger counterparts.

Archibald believes that Thistle are being treated with contempt by the league's governing body after they were one of three clubs to be hit by an imbalance in home fixtures against the Old Firm.

His belief is that the SPFL see Thistle, Motherwell and Hamilton – the other clubs affected in the fixture fallout – as soft touches.

He also refuted suggestions that Thistle were seeking to take advantage of Rangers supporters upon their return to the top-flight, claiming that all the club wants is to be treated equally.

“It just feels that with the three teams that are on the wrong end of this, they thought it would be easy to do it,” Archibald said.

“The attitude they’ve got seems to be that we’ll just get on with it.

“It might seem as if we’re just moaning, but these sorts of things only seem to happen to clubs like Thistle, Hamilton or Motherwell.

“It’s as if it’s not a big deal, but you can be sure it would be a big deal if it happened to the so-called bigger clubs.

“We put our statement out and I know there’s been a bit of grumbling in the media about us just wanting to take advantage of Rangers being in the league, but it’s got nothing to do with that.

“The fact is, for 15 seasons before Rangers went out of the league in the old SPL every side had three home games against the Old Firm. That was the way things were done.

“We assumed that would be the case again, and it wasn’t just us, Motherwell did as well and other teams assumed that was the way it would be done again.

“We had no communication to say that was going to change, and that’s what we’re aggrieved about. It’s nothing to do with wanting Rangers in the league or not wanting them in the league, or using their fans which people seem to be jumping on. It’s nothing to do with that, it’s the imbalance of it.”

To add to Archibald’s ire, Thistle have also been hit with an early season postponement due to Celtic taking on a glamour friendly against Inter Milan in Limerick.

It is the second time in three seasons that Celtic have taken advantage of league rules to play a friendly when they were pencilled in to face the Firhill side.

“I’m more aggrieved about the Celtic game being called off again,” Archibald fumed.

“I knew that the plans were in place for Celtic to do it, but I just didn’t think it would happen to us again.

“It happened to us two seasons ago, and it’s happened to us again. I’m sure that we had assurances at the time that it wouldn’t happen to us again so quickly, and lo and behold it’s us who are picked out of the hat and we have to have a game called off again just as the season is up and running. That’s disappointing.

“If Aberdeen go through in Europe they could potentially call our fixture off early in the season too, so it just seems to me as if there hasn’t been a great deal of thought put into it.

“The SPFL could have consulted us. There was no consultation whatsoever.

“It’s nothing against Celtic, they are well within their rights to do it, but I thought that common sense would prevail and they would realise that we missed our opening game a couple of seasons ago and it wouldn’t be us again this time. But obviously common sense hasn’t been applied.

“I think the rule makes us a laughing stock to be honest with you. It makes a mockery of the league, and I think it looks ridiculous from the outside.

“Fair play to Celtic, we would maybe do it ourselves in that position, but it’s a bit of a joke that you can cancel a league game for a friendly.

“People I speak to in football think it is daft too that in the top league that can happen.”