ALAN Archibald can boast almost 650 games as both manager and player with his beloved Partick Thistle.

And he believes tonight’s relegation battle with Ross County at Firhill is his biggest challenge yet since he first shipped up in Maryhill some 22 years ago.

It is hard to argue with the Jags boss. Should his team lose, they will sink to the bottom of the Premiership with only two games remaining.

Win and that’s likely to be County gone and with Dundee and Hamilton, the two teams ahead of his side, playing tomorrow, there would even be the chance of avoiding the dreaded play-off.

In such circumstances, the teams who emerge to safety tend to be the ones which manage to control their nerves and somehow ignore the serious situation to at least attempt to play football.

Relegation means a cutting of playing budgets, jobs are at risk, wages go down, promising kids perhaps having to be let go. In conclusion, it’s not very good.

“This is possibly the biggest game I’ve had at this club,” admitted Archibald.

“It’s the enormity of it, this is a huge game for both clubs and very similar to the last one when we went up there. We were just ahead of them, had the chance to open up a gap, they could leapfrog us, and it went their way.

“But you can enjoy these games. There is a big crowd and you feel the atmosphere. Everyone wants to play in big games, which this certainly is albeit for the wrong reasons, but it is still a huge occasion.

“It is important we have one or two who have been there before, who can calm the lads down. It’s also so important to play your own game and don’t try to do something unnatural to you.

“Guys such as Martin Woods, Chris Erskine and Kris Doolan are going to be vital. They have seen it all before, and I hope the relay this back to the others.

“They are more experienced in terms of age and the amount of games played, but the likes of Stevie Lawless has been though big games for us when we were going for promotion or fighting relegation.”

“I do think nerves play their part. You can see that in games when players are trying to pass the ball and the quality isn’t there because there’s so much at stake.

“I spoke to the players about that. There will be nervousness, there is going to be tension, and it’s important to settle, pass the ball, play your own game and put the nerves to bed.”

Thistle supporters feared the worst when their side lost 4-0 at Dingwall the last time these two said hello.

It was an awful night for the Maryhill men, their worst for a few years, but a squad which seemed bereft of spirit have managed to pick up some points to take them back above the Highlanders.

“We had a couple of meetings after that,” revealed Archibald. “It all went wrong up there, we know that, and we know where we went wrong in terms of performance.

“But we haven’t forgotten about that night by any manner of means.”

His hope is that memory drives on his players.