Partick boss Alan Archibald re-enters transfer market after Booth injury blow

The former Hibernian left-back damaged knee ligaments during Saturday's defeat to St Johnstone.

His injury now leaves Archibald shy on cover at full-back and the Jags boss says he will have to rush to find a replacement before next Thursday's transfer deadline.

I wasn't planning on doing any more business and we thought we were finished last week,'' he said.

But Callum Booth got a bad knee injury last week at St Johnstone so we might have to go back in and get some cover in at full-back.

We think he will be out for 12 weeks. He's torn his posterior cruciate ligament so it's quite a bad one.''

Thistle were hoping to build on last year's top-six finish - the club's best league result in 36 years - this term but have opened the new campaign with three successive defeats.

Sluggish starts are not a new phenomenon under Archibald. Last term it was October 26 before they mustered their second league win.

But the Jags manager fears their Ladbrokes Premiership rivals will not be so accommodating this time round and has urged his players to finally get off the mark when Aberdeen visit Firhill on Saturday.

He said: We have been slow starters during my time here but we need to get some points on the board soon as I don't think the league will be as forgiving as it was last term.

Every club has strengthened so we can't afford to get left behind.

I can see the win coming though. We beat St Johnstone, a Premiership team, in the Betfred Cup so there's no reason why we can't do it in the league.

There have certainly been positives in our last two league results against Celtic and Saints. We only lost by the odd goal, which was a frustration.

We can't let this run linger on though. We're going into the international break and it becomes a long two weeks if you don't win Saturday's game.'

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