Partick Thistle manager Alan Archibald is relieved that he won’t need to pull the wool over the eyes of prospective new signings once their new £4million training base is completed.

Archibald revealed that he may have told a little white lie or two in the past over where Thistle trained in order to woo players to the Firhill club.

But he is delighted that he will now have something at his disposal which he will be proud to show off to anyone.

“When I signed somebody a couple of years ago, and I told them the Science Park was our training facility,” Archibald recalled. “That was a wee porky pie, but I won’t need to lie now.

“It will definitely help [attract players]. It helps us against our rivals.”

Archibald has thanked the Partick Thistle board and lottery winners the Weir family for their support, saying that news of the investment in the training facility makes him feel vindicated for sticking around at the club.

There have been times during his tenure at Firhill when Archibald has come under pressure, but that seem a long time ago now after he secured a top-six finish for the Jags for the first time since the split was introduced.

The feeling now is that it may be hard for the club to hold onto him, but Archibald says that he is in no hurry to leave.

“We’ve got a really good board here and everybody is working in the one direction,” Archibald said. “There is not one person who is not happy and wants to go in a different direction. Everybody is working together to make the club better, and that’s at board level, first-team level and academy level. It’s a very tight-knit group all across the club.

“There are other managers that are envious of me. I speak to some other guys who say the board have stuck by me.

“When I’ve had a bad run, they come and ask me if they can help. They don’t say ‘oh you need to win on Saturday’. It’s ‘what can we do to help you?’

“Having that relationship with the board, who are always wanting stability so that you can do better, if you’re ever going to move on you want to have that kind of structure.

“Partick Thistle in the top six and getting a training ground - you don’t hear that in the same sentence. It’s fantastic for the club.

“I’ve been nagging away at Ian [Maxwell] for the best part of four years. I know what it’s like as a player here. You used to jump in the car, and didn’t know where you were going from day to day.

“You were soaking wet with your training gear on and you were driving back across Glasgow to get a shower.

“So, to get something like this is fantastic.”