Archibald aware of highs and lows thanks to Lambie
ALAN ARCHIBALD could always trust the late, great John Lambie to cut through the niceties. While Partick Thistle’s top-six finish last season was an immensely impressive feat, Lambie knew it would come with consequences for his managerial successor.
Once expectations have been raised, any slide down the table can seem like an almighty crash. And so it has been during a campaign of immense frustration at Firhill.
Archibald leads his side to Dens Park tomorrow knowing only victory will guarantee they avoid automatic relegation. Even if their advantage over 12th-placed Ross County is maintained, they would then have to navigate a two-legged play-off against either Livingston or Dundee United to secure a sixth successive season of top-flight football.
Keeping a club of Thistle’s stature at that level for that long is surely an admirable feat in itself. If Hibernian and Dundee United have dropped to the Championship in recent years, there is clearly no divine right for Premiership football to keep on visiting Maryhill.
It’s a point Archibald acknowledges, even if he accepts he will always be judged against recent history.
‘The fact we got to the top six last season has made this a bit different for us — it’s been like a fall from grace,’ he admitted.
‘The late John Lambie said to me last year: “What the f*** are you doing finishing in the top six, son? They’ll expect that every year!”
‘But, for us, staying up is an achievement and I’ll consider it to be one if we do it again this time out.
‘I said at the start of the season that this division was going to be harder this year, but that’s not an excuse for where we are because we should still be doing better.
‘However, once the season ends, we’ll see where we are, we’ll look back and go over it to see what we did wrong and how we can put it right. Now it’s just about focusing on Dundee and getting the win.’
Archibald took charge of Thistle following Jackie McNamara’s exit in January 2013 and successfully steered the club through the final months of that promotion campaign. Top-flight finishes of tenth, eighth and ninth then followed before last season’s surge into sixth place.
Matching that achievement, with both Hibs and Kilmarnock revitalised, always looked like a fearsome task.
Partick’s fate now hinges on a meeting with a Dundee team free of any relegation worries. Not that Archibald anticipates any favours from Neil McCann.
‘This is as big a game as we’ve had,’ he insisted.
‘Before now, the most memorable game in my managerial career was the one at Tynecastle in 2014 when we beat Hearts 4-2 to clinch survival in our first season back in the Premiership.
‘We’ve consolidated since then, but this is similar (to the Hearts game in 2014) because it’s also a tough place to go and take points — and we need three of them.
‘Neil said before the split that he wanted five wins and he’s not far away from that. From our point of view, it’s hard when you face a team which has not been sucked into it because you don’t know what you’re going to get from them.
‘Even if they use players who haven’t been getting a regular game or throw in some youngsters, they’ll all be out to prove a point. So all we can do is concentrate on ourselves. There can be no excuses from us, no matter what team Dundee put out or whatever they do.’
Archibald hasn’t had any in-depth conversation about the potential consequences of relegation with Thistle managing director Ian Maxwell, who will take over as SFA chief executive later this month. In truth, none is required.
‘I was on the ground staff as a young lad when Thistle went down after a play-off against Dundee United,’ recalled Archibald (right).
‘It was horrible. There were cutbacks at every level and people lost their jobs. I think the players are aware of the magnitude of the situation. Nobody wants to be a part of a team who are relegated.’
Nor did they want it to come to this. Recent home games against County and Motherwell only produced a single point as a failure to convert chances returned to haunt the Premiership’s lowest scoring team.
‘It was disappointing because it was a missed opportunity for us to go into the final day with the chance to get out of the playoff spot,’ admitted Archibald.
‘The lads put a lot into the game against Motherwell and it was a decent performance, but it wasn’t to be. We created a number of chances in that first half and I hope we can do that again on Saturday. But what does sum it all up is not taking our chances when we’re on top and then not defending properly at the other end of the pitch.
‘Ever since the split, we’ve been very positive in terms of how we’ve started games but we haven’t taken enough points from them.
‘We had to win our three home games — or at least two of them — to really give ourselves a chance of not being involved in this but we only got the one win.
‘But the lads’ attitude and positivity has been good and we are creating chances, so you just want to keep on doing the same thing and, hopefully, the results will change.’