ALAN Archibald is making this management lark look pretty easy.
After leading his side on a six-game unbeaten run to earn himself the Partick Thistle manager's position on a full-time basis, he celebrated his appointment in style yesterday as the Jags cruised past Livingston at Firhill to remain within striking distance of Irn-Bru First Division leaders Morton.
The Thistle defender, a long-standing favourite among the Firhill faith, had made the perfect pitch for the top job in recent weeks following the departure of Jackie McNamara to Dundee United and was finally rewarded on Friday night when he agreed a one-year rolling contract.
And his elevation from the dressing room to managerial hotseat gave Partick the perfect psychological shot in the arm that swept away Livingston in a tide of goals in Maryhill yesterday, each one coming from a different player.
With Thistle favourites to clinch the title and a Ramsdens Cup final looming, this six-goal show heralded in a new dawn that could be the start of something special at Firhill.
"It has been a brilliant few days," Archibald said. "The way we train and play, we have got goals all over the pitch and it has been like that all season. We have not had one player running away with it.
"If you have one person scoring all the goals and then he gets injured, it is a panic, but we have good players going forward. I think there is less pressure now because we have got piece of mind. It takes a bit of the uncertainty away."
The maiden win of the permanent Archibald era was all but secured by the time he gave his first team talk. Aaron Muirhead opened the floodgates from the spot after Paul Watson was penalised for handball before Steven Craig nodded home a Sean Welsh cross. The next two were defensive howlers as Andy McNeil allowed a low drive from James Craigen to skid past him off the rutted Firhill pitch and the Livngstoni defence stood still as Chris Erskine set up Steven Lawless, the forward showing good composure to finish and clinch the points.
There was a moment of respite for Richie Burke's side when Watson fired home just after the restart, but normal service was soon resumed, Erskine combining well with substitute Kris Doolan for arguably the pick of the goals. Doolan didn't have to wait long to add his name to the scoresheet, finishing with aplomb after collecting Aaron Sinclair's raking cross-field pass as Archie's Army went home happy once again.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article