Hearts to play first three home league matches at Murrayfield

Hearts will play three home games at Scotland's rugby HQ because of delays to their stadium redevelopment.

The Edinburgh club say the recent summer storms contributed to them missing their target to complete the £12m work on Tynecastle's main stand.

Hearts had already asked the SPFL to schedule their first two fixtures of the new season as away games while the ongoing refurbishments were completed.

But the club's owner Ann Budge says they have had no choice but to implement a back-up plan to use the 67,000 capacity stadium for the home games against Aberdeen, St Johnstone and Rangers.

"The construction teams have been working tirelessly to deliver our superb new stand," she said.

"Unfortunately, however, there are some things we cannot control and as such, despite the mammoth effort that has gone into the construction project up until now, we are not going to make our targeted "open for business" date of 9th September 2017.

"The wettest June/July in years, coupled with the late delivery of seating from the Far East, due to shipping issues, means we will have to invoke our contingency plan and play our first few home fixtures at Murrayfield.

"While this is disappointing, the cooperation of the management and staff at the SRU means we can accommodate all, indeed even more, of our supporters in fine style at the national rugby stadium."

Partick Thistle have also agreed to flip the fixture on September 23 which will now be played at Firhill.

The improvements are the first since the Gorgie Stand opened in 1997 and would take Tynecastle's capacity to more than 20,000.

Two big screens are also being installed along with upgrades to the players' changing rooms.