DEL CANNY GO WRONG

ALAN ARCHIBALD thought the lure of his boyhood heroes would prove too strong for Derek McInnes when Rangers came calling.

But his former team-mate snubbed the Ibrox job to stay at Aberdeen and Archibald admits it wasn’t a surprise because McInnes is too canny and thorough to make a wrong move.

Archibald shared a dressing room and a car with McInnes for three years when they played together at Dundee United.

They will be in opposite dugouts at Pittodrie tomorrow night with the Dons second top and Archie’s Jags second bottom.

Archibald said: “With him being a Glasgow boy and a Rangers fan you’d always think he’s going to do it.

“But Derek’s so thorough and he’s not stupid. Even when he played, I travelled with him a lot and he thinks about the game.

“It had to be the right move or he wouldn’t go. We saw that with Sunderland too. That put doubt in my mind because he knocked back Sunderland and was thorough in the approach.

“He’s in a good place at Aberdeen and has a good relationship with the board. It’ll be a tough game for us.

“Derek has got them going again. They were superb against Hibs last week.”

Thistle moved off bottom spot with their weekend win over Accies and Archibald added: “Hopefully we can build on that. We don’t want a negative performance, we know we can hurt Aberdeen and we have to go there and show that.”