THAT famous old saying about Firhill for thrills still holds true.

Even now I am always delighted when the BBC sends me there because I know I am going to see a good game of football. I topped and tailed my playing days at Partick Thistle and have always regarded it is a great wee family club. I still live quite locally and my little boy quite often goes to games there.

The first time I was there, I was just a young boy on loan from Chelsea, still making my way in the game. I was only 19 or so and I scored 10 goals in a spell, including four one day against East Fife. Ken Bates owned both clubs at the time, Chelsea and Partick, before the rules changed to prevent you from being able to do that, and I came into a dressing room which included solid pros such as Alan Dinnie, Steve Pittman, Eddie Gallacher, Bobby Law and wee Ian McDonald. They were hardy boys from tough backgrounds, and wages at the time weren't great, but it made for a great team spirit and that was the best thing about it. Things came full circle at the other end of my career when I had a two or three-game spell back at Firhill after I left Dundee United as assistant manager.

Alan Archibald is an ex-team-mate and player of mine at Tannadice and he deserves everything he gets out of the game because he is so hard working. What you see is what you get with him. He was Mr Reliable as a player and no-one in football has a bad word to say about him.

But even though he had been doing a bit of coaching beforehand, taking over from Jackie McNamara as Thistle chased promotion was a tough assignment for your first managerial job. Most managers prefer taking over when the club is at rock bottom, but he took over when they were flying at the top of the first division table, playing a brand of football which the punters loved. He has been a huge success ever since, winning promotion with style and making a fine start to their SPFL Premiership campaign. But I am sure Archie will know that they could do with another centre-half and maybe even a couple of forward-thinking players. After such a good start, they are sometimes finding it hard to transfer possession and their style of football into wins and the reason is that they have not got an edge and they are a bit suspect defensively.

To be fair to Archie, he has been loyal to pretty much all of his first-division players and it has served them well. I particularly love their midfield. Steven Lawless is one of these neat, tidy players with a wee trick. Sometimes these kinds of players don't always have an end product - but he has. I have also been impressed by Sean Welsh, who was disregarded by so many managers at Hibernian, and Stuart Bannigan does a great job.

Everybody raves about their full-backs so perhaps the only thing missing is an out-and-out goalscorer - someone like Kris Boyd. At the moment John Baird and Kris Doolan are the two frontmen, and they definitely have that work ethic, but is that enough? Don't get me wrong: I am not saying there is pressure on them to find that centre-forward right away because I already think they will stay up. But if you want to thrive in the SPFL Premiership you have to start adding greater quality sooner or later.

Tomorrow night's match, yet another under the lights at Firhill, sees Archibald come up against another old team-mate of mine from those Chelsea days in Pat Fenlon. He also deserves huge credit because a month or so ago he was hanging on to his own job, but he took it on the chin and his team have started winning games again. Pat will tell you his team still have a long way to go yet, but he has dug himself out of a hole and that has taken some doing. Many managers would have vanished under that pressure.

WHAT is it with England and their goal-keepers? First, Robert Green, then Ben Foster and now Joe Hart. It is as if there is a curse on them and Fraser Forster might be wise to be cautious about putting himself next in the firing line. In the case of Hart, England thought they had finally found a world-class goalkeeper.

A year ago I would have said the Manchester City custodian was untouchable as England's No 1, but I don't know if that is the case any more. How many mistakes does he get to make?

For his height, I still think Forster is suspect at cross balls, but once again he proved he is a world-class shotstopper against Barcelona.

Everybody wants to play for their country, but for me Forster should sit in the background for a little bit longer because he could get ruined mentally and hung out to dry if things go wrong against Montenegro and Poland with him between the sticks.