CRAZY GANG

Del: It's nuts Archie got boot after top-six spot but I'm so glad he's on my team at Killie

- CRAIG SWAN

DEREK MCINNES reckons it was crazy that Alan Archibald lost his job so soon after taking Partick Thistle into the Premiership top six.

And he has hailed the former manager and other key supportteam members Paul Sheerin and Craig Clark for helping Kilmarnock complete their own surge into the top half and race towards Europe.

McInnes has led superbly from the front as Killie have secured their top-six finish two games before the split. He's been ably backed by a crucial trio of staff in assistant Sheerin, first-team coach Archibald and technical coach Craig Clark.

He reshaped the set-up after Tony Docherty's departure to Dundee at the end of last season and said: "There's been a good way of working and dynamic with all the backroom staff.