Partick Thistle legend Kenny Arthur has told SportTimes of his delight after sealing a return to Firhill as goalkeeping coach.

Arthur moves to the club after three seasons in the same role at Queen of the South, replacing Paul Gallacher who joined Hearts earlier in the week.

For Arthur, who played 243 games for Thistle in an eleven-year spell at the club and earned a place in the club’s Hall of Fame, it is an emotional homecoming to the place where it all began for him in football.

“I’m absolutely delighted,” Arthur said. “It’s obviously a club that’s very, very close to my heart.

“I spent most of my career at Partick Thistle, played a lot of games and had a lot of good times, so I’m really, really looking forward to going back.

“It will just be a lovely experience going back in and I’m looking forward to seeing some familiar faces.

“I went in and spoke to the manager a couple of days ago, and even just walking through and seeing the kit room and the boot room again, it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

“I stood at the corner and took in how big the pitch was again and all those sorts of things, I’m really looking forward to going back.

“The manager didn’t ned to sell anything to me, as soon as I heard the words ‘Partick Thistle’ and ‘would you like to come?’ then that was it for me.”

Despite the warm regard in which Arthur is held at Firhill, he is under no illusions of the importance of the task he has inherited.

He is determined to prove himself at the club all over again, and he is relishing the opportunity to do so in what he sees as a perfect environment for player development.

He said: “I think I had a good relationship with the Partick Thistle supporters back when I played, but let’s be honest, in any job you’re judged by how good you are and how talented you are in that role.

“All of the sentiment will be nice, but it’s a serious position for me and it’s something that I’m hoping to succeed in.

“I think it’s a forward-thinking football club and from the outside looking in there seems to be a great infrastructure and a lot of hard work going on behind the scenes and that has given the club a real solid footing.

“It’s something I’m really looking forward to being a part of.

“I had three years coaching at Queen of the South after I finished playing, and Jim Chapman let me take the goalkeepers as well as playing at Annan.

“I also did Northern Ireland under 19s for a couple of years, and coaching is something I really enjoy. If you can’t play it’s the next best thing, and it’s great trying to impart any knowledge that I have onto someone else.

“I think it’s huge in any sporting environment that it’s an all-inclusive atmosphere, and Partick Thistle definitely has that.

“There’s a real togetherness and an open environment to go and work in, and hopefully we can continue that.”

The prospect of working with talented goalkeepers in Tomas Cerny and Ryan Scully is something that also excites the former Thistle number one.

“They are two really talented boys,” he said. “I’m from Hamilton so I watched Tomas when he broke through into the Hamilton first-team and did phenomenally well.

“Ryan as well, I saw a quite a lot of his game-time when he was out on loan at Dunfermline and he’s played a fair bit for Thistle as well.

“I’m looking forward to helping them as much as I can.”