Archibald first Thistle boss to win MOTM award in 13 years

Alan Archibald has revealed how his fellow bosses helped him through the tough times as he became the first Partick Thistle manager to win a top-flight award for over 13 years.

Alan Archibald receives his award. Picture: SNS

Archibald, who will celebrate three years in charge at Firhill next month, has had to deal with Jordan McMillan’s failed drugs tests, the betting violations of Stevie Lawless and Gary Fraser’s nine-match ban for on-field violence among other problems while also suffering difficult spells on the pitch.

However, he says Aberdeen’s Derek McInnes, Ross County’s Jim McIntyre and former Jags boss Ian McCall, now manager of Ayr United, have given him great counsel when it has been needed.

Thistle lost six and drew three of their opening nine fixtures and were bottom of the table but the transformation has been impressive with four wins and two draws in their last seven matches.

Archibald, who was a Thistle player when John Lambie won manager of the month in August 2002, said: “I speak to Del McInnes a lot because I played with him, or Jim McIntyre or Ian McCall.

“When we were going through a bad run they called me to help me out. Football is like that, it’s a close-knit network and that helps. You feel for other managers who are going through a hard time.

“I think it’s only other managers that genuinely get what it’s like, it’s hard to explain to anybody else who hasn’t been through it. We’re all going through the same stuff and the same pressure.”

Archibald, who is hoping to pull further away from trouble tomorrow with a win over Motherwell, added: “The 24-hour nature of the job surprised me at the start, along with the psychology part and being a social worker.

“We’ve had a couple of social media incidents as well which you’re all aware of!

“We had a good win last week and then Stevie Lawless gets his phone stolen. The week before Mathias Pogba was in Paris during the terror attacks, so there’s always something happening and you spend a lot of your life on the phone.

“There are so many different problems that players go through ranging from personal problems with their girlfriends to the gambling issue.

“It is my job to make sure that I have a happy group of players as all they want to do is to go over that white line and give their best to get a result.”