GERRY BRITTON knows that John Lambie will be remembered for cigars, pigeons, his legendarily sweary one-liners, and of course, his massive influence on Partick Thistle.

Britton too will remember those aspects of a man he will forever know simply as ‘Gaffer’, but beyond the hard exterior which Lambie showed to the outside world, he will also remember a warm, wonderful man, who was always on hand to dish out a piece of advice, at times whether you had asked for it or not.

From a footballing perspective, Britton is keen to point out that there was so much more to Lambie the coach than he was often given credit for, and that he has never seen another manager so skilfully wring so much out of his players as Lambie did - himself included.

“John signed me from Celtic, and he turned me from being a reserve player into a first-team player overnight, so I’ve got a hell of a lot to thank him for,” Britton said.

“He was a winner, John, and he made players out of a hell of a lot of guys who probably wouldn’t have had the careers they did but for him.

“You hear people talking about others as real football men, and John was that, but what a lot of people didn’t give him credit for was the coaching background and tactical nous he had. He worked with Hibs and Eddie Turnbull in the 70’s, and then progressed through to become a manager.

“I think a lot of the time John liked to show this exterior to everyone, but when you got to know him and sat down to talk about football - as I had the privilege of doing on many occasions – you knew that this was a guy who wasn’t all bluster. There is no doubt he was a man who knew football, and above all else, knew footballers.

“His one-liners grabbed the headlines, but players would have quickly seen through it if that’s all he was about. He had that sustained success for a reason, he knew how to manipulate players to get the best out of them.”

What Lambie inspired most in his players was loyalty, but he could also inspire fear, and Britton remembers that he always commanded the respect of the squad.

“He was a motivator and he was someone that you wanted to play for,” he said. “There was a bit of fear there, you didn’t want to fall on the wrong side of him. But if John gave you praise it was the best thing in the world, that’s what you were craving as a player. That really spurred you on do your best for him on the pitch every time you went out there.

“You can’t really buy that. There’s very few managers or coaches that I’ve come into contact with that have come close to what he could do in terms of how he could make a player feel going out onto the pitch.”

For all that his true personality was multi-faceted, there was also more than a grain of truth from the legend of Lambie in the man himself. Some of his methods, Britton concedes, were unconventional to say the least.

“This is a guy who gave us all a glass of champagne an hour before we went out to play Rangers one day,” he recalled.

“He said; ‘This is a celebration, it’s been years since we’ve played them at Firhill so let’s go and enjoy it.’ I had just signed from Celtic, and I’m looking about thinking he was taking the p**s, but then I saw a few of the older boys taking a drink and I thought ‘why not?’

“We went out and were buzzing, and went 1-0 up through wee George Shaw. We ended up getting beat 4-1, but that was just his way of relaxing us. He knew we were playing the best side in the country and that his players were probably s******g themselves, and that one wee glass of champagne just took the edge off the nerves. It sounds mad, but there was method behind it.

“You also had the infamous trips to Blackpool, where we used to train on what we called dog-s**t park. It was just a public park, even in the lead-up to cup quarter-finals. He usually took us down in January, probably because the B&B’s were dirt-cheap and nobody else wanted to go.

“He would feel he needed a break too, because he was an intense man and he gave everything to that job. That was his way of relaxing in the lead up to important games, and it was the same for us.

“At times, you were sometimes thinking ‘Jesus Christ, what are we doing here?’, but looking back, you can see the logic.”

In the coming days, thoughts at Firhill will turn to marking the impact Lambie had on the club during his incredible career and beyond. It could be argued his greatest legacy is in fact the present-day club itself.

Whether the forthcoming training facility is named after him –an irony that wouldn’t be lost on Lambie after he spent years taking training on the gravel pitches of St Columba High – or perhaps the North Stand is renamed in his honour, remains to be seen. But what is inarguable, is that everyone with Partick Thistle in their hearts will remember John Lambie – forever and ever.

“I have no doubt that the club will mark his memory in some way, and that would only be right and fitting,” Britton said. “I’ll always be eternally grateful to him.”