One team in Glasgow Partick Thistle

Alan Archibald 1997 – 2003 and 2007

Born 13 December 1977 in Glasgow.

Extract from Partick Thistle Legends book

By Niall Kennedy (Author), Tom Hosie (Author)

Season 1996-97 was in the main a miserable one for Partick Thistle. Relegated in heartbreaking circumstances from the Premier Division the season before,Thistle, under Murdo MacLeod, were unable to sustain any kind of promotion challenge. With dark clouds starting to circulate overhead only the Thistle under 18 team offered any kind of optimism for the future. Not for many years had Thistle had cause to harbour high hopes for a number of talented young players. Producing some excellent performances along the way the Thistle under 18 side reached the final of the Glasgow Cup. They may well have lost the final heavily to Celtic but before the season’s end many of that team were given their first taste of first team football.

The first to do so was Alan Archibald. As debuts go it was a low key affair. Less than 1,000 were at East Fife’s Bayview Park home on 5 April 1997 to witness Thistle record an easy win against a poor home side. Few Thistle fans present that afternoon could have imagined that the second half substitute for Thistle would have two spells as a Thistle player clocking up a total of over 250 appearances in the process. Following his debut Archibald made a further 4 appearances, including two starts, before the season’s completion.

It took him a little time to establish himself in the Thistle side the following season but once he had done so he became a feature in the Thistle defence. From the end of October to the very end of the season he failed to start just one game and his emergence as a player of some potential was a rare bright point of a miserable season that culminated in relegation to the Second Division.

Playing his football at a lower level didn’t seem to hamper Archibald’s development any even though it soon became clear that Thistle wouldn’t be making a rapid return to the First Division. He became a regular in the Scotland Under 21 squad and was twice capped at that level.

Whilst Archibald’s career was on the up Thistle’s fortunes remained very much on a down slope and for a while Archibald found himself dragged down by that. As Thistle finished the 1999-00 season in miserable fashion some Thistle fans even began to wonder whether he should be retained.

Fortunately manager John Lambie continued to show faith in Archibald and he was more than rewarded for that faith. Thistle won the 2000-01 Second Division in a canter with Archibald missing just two games. It was a similar story the following season as well. This time Archibald missed a grand total of four games as Thistle followed up their Second Division title win by winning the First Division title 12 months later.

Against all the odds Thistle retained their SPL status at the end of the 2002-03 season with Archibald, as ever, a real stalwart in the Thistle defence. His days at Firhill, however, were soon to be at an end. A whole host of players left Firhill at the end of the season and Archibald was one of the first to leave when, with the season barely over, he joined Dundee United.

He was a great success in his first season at Tannadice. He played in every game and was voted by the United supporters as their Player of the Year. His personal success continued the following season when he, again, played in every United fixture and ended the season by featuring in the Scottish Cup Final against Celtic although he had the disappointment of finishing on the losing side. He would remain very much a regular at Tannadice for the next season and a half.

A hugely popular player during his first stint at Firhill it was always hoped that Archibald would at some stage return to Firhill. He eventually did so just before the transfer deadline in January 2007 but only after Thistle had been trying to sign him for over a year. He made his debut for Thistle second time around against Ross County and typically carried off the Man of the Match award.

As a defender Archibald has quite naturally concentrated on preventing goals rather than scoring them but he has found the net for Thistle on eight occasions. The first of those eight goals could easily have been Thistle’s last ever goal. With the club’s financial crisis such that closure looked imminent the home fixture with St Mirren could easily have been the last ever game. The fans rallied though and a decent crowd turned out proving that there was still life in Partick Thistle. On the field Thistle soon found themselves trailing 0-2 and it was an Archibald goal that hauled Thistle, who would go on a draw 2-2, back into the game. Other notable Archibald strikes include a double at Arbroath during Thistle’s First Division winning season and another double against Hearts in the SPL in what was Archibald’s 200^th appearance for Partick Thistle.

Now once again playing under Ian McCall, the manager that took him to Dundee United, Archibald has an important role to play at Firhill as McCall tries to restore the club’s fortunes.

Partick Thistle

Dundee United

Partick Thistle