New Dundee United signing Paul Paton says he should have put money on the Tangerines being paired with old club Partick Thistle on day one of the new season.
Alan Archibald’s Irn-Bru First Division champions will host United at Firhill on August 3 as the top flight of the new Scottish Professional Football League kicks off.
The Tannadice men will be led to Glasgow by former Jags boss Jackie McNamara, while utility man Paton could be joined in the side by playmaker Chris Erskine after both players moved to Tayside on pre-contracts earlier this summer.
Former Thistle skipper Paton said: “I’m not surprised in any way by the fact we’ve got Thistle first. I said yesterday on Twitter that we’d get them and we did. I should have put money on it.
“It’s always the way these things seem to work out. I’m looking forward to the game. I know myself, the gaffer and to a lesser extent Chrissy might come in for some stick but we’ll take that on board.
“It’s just another game as far as I’m concerned and a good place to start. I obviously know the stadium so it will be good to go there in front of a full house with a good atmosphere.”
McNamara quit the Maryhill outfit in January to replace Peter Houston as United boss. But he was involved in a bitter compensation dispute with his former employers in the months that followed, with both sides threatening legal action.
The saga was only resolved last week but Paton insists the row would not have added any extra spice to the game as far as the players are concerned.
“As players, we don’t really care about what is going on in the background,” he said. “We let the chairmen and the boards sort out all the other stuff and we just concentrate on the football side of things.
“The only people at Dundee United who will take special significance from the game at Partick will be me, Chrissy and the gaffer. For the rest of the boys, it will just be another game.”
United’s first month of SPFL action will see them follow up their trip to Firhill with a home match against Inverness on August 10 before they visit Easter Road to face Hibernian a week later.
August 24 will see the first Tayside derby of the campaign as St Johnstone head east towards the City of Discovery and United will then play hosts again on August 31, with Scottish champions Celtic the opposition.
But Paton played down suggestions that three home games out of their first five was an encouraging way to start the campaign.
He said: “You’ve got to play everyone at some stage, so I have never looked at the fixtures and thought, ‘Oh, that’s a hard run of games’ or ‘Oh, that’s a good run of games’.
“You’ll play all the teams at some stage, so just get it done.”
The full list of SPL fixtures is available here.