Houston began his career in 1977 with Airdrieonians but made just one senior league appearance and dropped into junior football with Livingston United.

In 1979, Houston moved back into senior football with Albion Rovers and played over 100 league matches over four years, scoring 33 times.

A similar length of spell at Falkirk also yielded 33 goals and upon leaving in 1986 to join Dumbarton, Houston had made over 250 senior league appearances.

[5] Houston lead a young Hearts team that included future Scotland caps Scott Severin and Robbie Neilson to the Scottish Youth Cup in 1998.

Despite initially being considered favourite to take over on a permanent basis, Houston announced he would not be applying for the job following a 7–1 Ibrox defeat against Rangers under his tenure.

[9] He guided Dundee United to 3rd place in the SPL and the final of the Scottish Cup, where they defeated Ross County 3–0 at Hampden Park on 15 May 2010 to seal their first major trophy for 16 years.

[11] In his first full season as manager United in 4th place in the SPL, thereby qualifying for Europe again and reached the quarter-final of the Scottish Cup.

In the summer of 2011 several key players left the club or were sold including David Goodwillie, Craig Conway and Morgaro Gomis.

[14] Eventually, United's form improved and the club again finished in fourth place, once again qualifying for the UEFA Europa League, an achievement which pleased Houston who expressed pride in his players' performance.

[16] On 14 January 2013, Dundee United granted Football League Championship club Blackpool permission to speak to Houston about their vacant managerial position.