TONY HIGGINS is thrilled that Alan Archibald has ended a 36-year wait to make Partick Thistle a top-six club – but he fears his achievements will imminently lead to new employment in England.

Victory over Motherwell last Saturday guaranteed a top-six finish for Thistle in their fourth season back in the top flight.

Higgins, who was in the last Partick team to reach such lofty heights in 1981, feels it is a terrific achievement which, coupled with the announcement of the construction of a new training facility, puts his old club in fine footing. However, the European vice-president of international players’ union Fifpro worries that Archibald’s efforts will not have gone unnoticed south of the border.

Higgins said: “I don’t think Alan’s stock has been higher and you would think the natural progression would be to go and work in England.

“Most coaches in Scotland aspire to find a job below the Premier League and then see where it takes them.

“If you look at the coaches who have left Scotland in the last few years to go and work in England then I think Alan is of the same quality.

“I just hope they can hold on to him for as long as they can but he is probably the hottest property at Partick Thistle at the moment and the Jags board will do will to keep him there.

“The thing I like about Alan Archibald is that he always tries to play football. I think it started with Jackie McNamara and in fairness to Alan when he took over he continued in the same vein. He had the bravery to play attractive football and he has got the rewards.

“I think there have been many games this season where the quality of Thistle’s play has deserved more than they achieved.

“His recruitment has been very good because he has been able to identify players from the markets he can operate in to make Thistle better.”

Thistle were an established Premier Division team when Higgins joined from Hibs in the summer of 1980 – but, remarkably, the majority of the players were part-time. Bertie Auld had taken them up in 1976 and kept them there in what was a far more intense 10-team division in which two teams were relegated each season.

Auld left for Hibs in December 1980 but Peter Cormack continued the good work and secured sixth place with a 1-1 draw against Rangers on the penultimate day of the season.

Higgins said: “I’m surprised that it has been so long since Thistle finished in the top six as I thought the John Lambie period in the 1990s would have provided that.

“We had a decent team then with Alan Rough in goals, Dave MacKinnon and Brian Whittaker were the full-backs with the old stalwarts Jackie Campbell and Andy Anderson in the centre of defence.

“We had Donald Park, Kenny Watson, Alex O’Hara, Iain Jardine as well so we had a team of seasoned professionals who were all well respected.

“The one thing Bertie had done was retain Premier Division status for quite a few years so he had guys who knew how to stay in the division.

“Ostensibly we were a part-time club then – there were only a few of us who were full time. So to stay in the Premier Division then was an achievement in itself, never mind finishing sixth.

“When I had joined from Hibs I had protection on my salary and I think there were only two or three others – Roughie being one – who were full time. The rest of the lads all had other jobs during the day and we trained three nights a week.

“We won the Glasgow Cup that year when we beat Rangers in the semi-final and then beat Celtic in the final at Firhill.

“The thing was it was full-strength teams in these days so we beat the Celtic side that won the league that season.

“The Thistle fans loved it as they would say ‘who is the only team that’s unbeaten against Celtic in cup finals in the last 10 years?’

“The answer, of course, was Partick Thistle after winning the League Cup final in 1971.

“It was still a tournament of some prominence and to beat both Rangers and Celtic in competitive matches shows the quality of the team we had then.”