ARCHIE KNOX may be in his 65th year but there is no sign that he is about to put away his coaching manuals just yet. At an age when many would be thinking of retirement, Knox is enjoying a new lease of life with Richard Gough at Livingston.

It's ironic that on a weekend when his former club Rangers take on Celtic in a title showdown he will be involved in a relegation battle with Livingston who face Dundee United, the club where he started his coaching career under Jim McLean.

His 48 years in football have been peppered with success stories and it is hard to come to terms with Knox finding himself as assistant manager at a club who are at the bottom of the Bank of Scotland Premierleague.

Relegation is something that he will not countenance, a point he makes clear as he walks into the cramped office he shares with Gough at Almondvale.

"Look at him, after all these years he's still got coaching manuals coming out of his ears, " jokes Gough as Knox walks past. "His experience has been invaluable to me since I took over and he's proved to be my best-ever signing at this football club, " he adds.

Sir Alex Ferguson at Aberdeen and Manchester United, Walter Smith at Rangers, Craig Brown with Scotland, Eric Black at Coventry and Mark McGhee at Millwall have all said the same. For all of the talk of Knox's footballing eccentricity, the facts don't lie.

He is one of Scotland's most successful and respected coaches, who helped Ferguson to European Cup-Winners' Cup success with Aberdeen and helped Smith snare seven titles for Rangers, including a domestic treble in 1994.

"These were all great achievements but keeping Livingston in the SPL would be equal to any of them, " said Knox. "We have five games left and I'm sure we can do it.

"This is a different challenge for me but we brought in our own players and beating Hibs 3-0 at Easter Road last week was the best result and performance we have had since I came here with Richard.

"To be honest, he had to twist my arm a lot to convince me to take the job in the first place but now I'm here I'm giving it my best shot and I am enjoying being at the club."

Knox is still every inch a football enthusiast and tomorrow will watch the Old Firm game, the outcome of which he believes is too close to call.

"The Old Firm game on Sunday is one which I am looking forward to and will be a really interesting match between two very good sides, " said Knox.

"Whoever wins has a great chance of taking the title. Celtic will be going to Ibrox knowing a draw would probably be a good result and Rangers will be looking for a win. Whatever the outcome, I don't think you can say the match will decide the title.

"The other teams in the top six are good sides and will all give Celtic and Rangers difficult games in the run-in. These matches are no foregone conclusions. I think teams like Hibs have a good group of young players and Rangers always have a difficult match against Aberdeen at Pittodrie, as do Celtic. The state of the Pittodrie pitch will make things even more difficult. It will be a close and interesting end to the season, both at the top and at the bottom."

When Knox was at Rangers they were in the middle of their domination of Scottish football, millions of pounds were available to spend and he worked on the training field every day with technically gifted players such as Brian Laudrup and Paul Gascoigne.

He has returned, via spells with Walter Smith at Everton and as Craig Brown's assistant with Scotland to the bottom end of the Scottish league table and with less talented players.

"I have experienced times of not winning when I was at Dundee, Forfar and Millwall but I have never been in a situation when you go six or seven games without a league win which happened here earlier in the season, " remembers Knox.

"You examine yourself when that happens and you learn from it and fix the problem. It just took us time to settle and bring our own players in but now we have done that and are starting to play well. I think Livingston are a good club.

People talk about a lack of facilities in Scottish football but I was at Rangers for seven years and we never really had a full pitch to train on, while here at Livingston we have the Astroturf surface available behind the stadium. You can make excuses for everything but really you have to just roll your sleeves up and work with what you have got."

With that, Knox was up and out of his chair and on the way to chat to Gough to work out a strategy to keep Livingston in the SPL .