Gordon Strachan received an additional reward for winning last season’s dramatic Clydesdale Bank Premier League race when he learnt yesterday that his Celtic side will have the perfect platform to launch their quest for a fourth successive title triumph in his reign.

The defending champions will be at home for three of the opening four games, including the Old Firm derby with Rangers on August 30. Celtic will begin the defence of the title that they won on the final day of the campaign, edging out their Glasgow rivals by three points, when they entertain St Mirren on Sunday, August 10.

In contrast, Walter Smith faces three away trips in the opening month. Rangers head to Falkirk on the opening weekend, on Saturday, August 9, and travel to Aberdeen and Celtic Park in an itinerary that will also see the Ibrox club handling a Champions League qualifying round mission. The Scottish Premier League (SPL) unveiled the new 2008-09 fixture list yesterday and another intriguing aspect of the opening day is that Mark McGhee, the Motherwell manager, must go to Tynecastle to face Heart of Midlothian in a swift test of nerve after recently turning down the Edinburgh club who wanted him to become their new manager.

The SPL faced intense criticism from Rangers last season because the league refused to order a second extension to the championship after Smith’s side reached the Uefa Cup final and had a backlog of domestic fixtures. The task of compiling the fixtures is now undertaken by Optical Planning Solutions, a Canadian company that also designs fixtures lists for the NFL and MLS in the United States, and the French league, but that has done little do dilute Ibrox ire, even if other clubs offered praise.

Newly-promoted Hamilton Academical are relieved that they face no clash of interest with their near-neighbours, Motherwell, with the Lanarkshire sides playing at home on alternate weekends throughout the opening 33 rounds of the 38-game schedule before the league splits into the top and bottom six. Aberdeen have also endorsed the new format, while Hibernian and Hearts are glad to see the traditional Edinburgh New Year derby restored to the calendar, with the sides meeting at Tynecastle on January 3. Rangers and Celtic will also meet over the festive holiday period, with the second Old Firm meeting of the campaign arranged for Ibrox on Saturday, December 27.

However, the first Glasgow derby of the term will see Andrius Velicka make his Old Firm baptism. Rangers acquired the 29-year-old Lithuania striker from Viking Stavanger yesterday for £1 million. Velicka, who signed a three-year contract, left Hearts only in March to move to Norway but Smith has noted the player’s repeated scoring feats against Celtic during his time at Tynecastle and he will join another new signing, Kenny Miller, the Scotland striker who was bought from Derby County last Friday for £1.9 million. Miller, of course, scored for Celtic against Rangers in an Old Firm encounter in September 2006.

Hamilton’s return to the top flight after a 20-year absence will see them start at home to Dundee United on Monday, August 11, in an evening match screened live throughout Britain. Billy Reid, the manager, has fought over the summer to keep hold of his prodigy, James McCarthy, who is wanted by Palermo, of Italy, and the teenager will undergo his own learning curve in the SPL, not Serie A. McCarthy will walk out at Celtic Park on October 4 and then face Rangers at New Douglas Park on October 25 before tasting a Lanarkshire derby at Fir Park on November 1.

Aberdeen launch their campaign at home to Inverness Caledonian Thistle and Duncan Fraser, the managing director, thought the fixtures were more consistent for the coming season. “From an Aberdeen perspective, the fixtures are far more balanced than they have been in recent seasons and it would certainly appear that our strenuous pleas to the league for a reduction in the level of back-to-back home and away games have been heeded,” he said.

“This makes it substantially easier from a supporter’s perspective in terms of budgeting. It’s something we have been very vociferous about and well done to the league for taking that on board.”

Iain Blair, the SPL secretary, was grateful for that. “It’s very easy to pick out little two or three game runs and be really unhappy about that for your particular club,” he said. “I know I do it for my own club, but our objective is to find the best balance over all 12 clubs over the entire season and I think we’ve done that.”

Motherwell, who have rejected a £800,000 bid for Mark Reynolds, found the young central defender endorsing their actions yesterday. “I am happy to stay here and keep developing as a player,” Reynolds said. “It’s flattering that a club wants to buy you and I take it as a compliment that Motherwell saw the bid as an insult.”