Career
He began his senior career at before going on to play for Barnsley, and finally Greenock Morton. Archdeacon played on the left-wing for the majority of his career, although dropped back into a more defensive role in his later years. Archdeacon began his career with local side Gourock United before signing for in August 1982.
A left-sided player, he generally played in an attacking role wide left foreign
Due to regular winger Davie Provan"s illness in season 1985-1986, Archdeacon began to play regularly for the first team at that time. This run of first team action saw the young winger make 23 league appearances that season, scoring 3 goals.
Over the next three years a variety of factors dented his confidence however, and despite his undoubted skill on the ball he failed to become a first team regular at Park. He did however experience the joy of scoring against Rangers, capitalising on carelessness between Rangers full-back Jimmy Nicholl and goalkeeper Chris Woods by nipping in between them and toe-poking the ball from 15 yards into an empty Netto.
However, the arrival of new signings Frank McAvennie and, in particular, Joe Miller, saw Archdeacon drift out of manager Billy McNeill"s plans as the season progressed.
He also made a second-half appearance as a substitute for Mark McGhee in the 2-1 defeat against Rangers in the 1986 Scottish League Cup Final. In June 1989 Archdeacon moved to Barnsley for £80,000 he and became a fixture for the Yorkshire club in the following seasons. He made 233 league appearances for The Tykes, scoring 23 goals.
Barnsley were an established side in England"s second tier at that time (Division Two until 1992 when it was re-branded Division One on the formation of the FA Premier League), never quite succeeding in gaining promotion although they narrowly missed out on a play-off spot in 1990-1991 on goal difference.
Late in 1997 former team-mate Billy Stark paid £100,000 to take him to Greenock Morton and Archdeacon played for and captained his home town side until his retirement through ankle injury in 1999. Since retiring, Archdeacon worked for a time as a Youth Team coach with and currently works with the U13"s at the Academy.
He has turned out for the legends team