Ryan Edwards says that international duty with Australia's under-23 side has been a double-edged sword for him since signing for Partick Thistle.

While honoured to represent his country, the Olyroo's captain acknowledges that the trips have made it difficult for him to establish himself at Firhill.

With a glut of fixtures ahead as Scottish football prepares to enter its’ hectic festive period though, Edwards is hoping to show the Jags fans what he can do.

He said: “The trip was really good, we had two good games, one against Qatar and one against Iran. We’re still in the friendly stage at the moment, the qualifiers aren’t until January.

“I captained the team against Qatar and although we lost 3-1, it was never a 3-1 loss, then we drew 1-1 with Iran which was much better.

“It’s probably the biggest accolade you can get at any age-group to captain your country. It’s an amazing feeling wearing the armband and walking the boys out.

“Hearing the anthem, even though the crowds aren’t maybe the greatest in youth football, it’s still an unbelievable feeling.

“It’s good to have internationals representing their country at any club. We’ve also got Mathias Pogba and Mustapha Dumbuya going away with their countries, so it’s great for the profile of the club.

“There’s positives and negatives to it though. I signed for Partick in September, so in the last two or three months I’ve been coming and going with the international breaks, so I haven’t really got any momentum going club-wise, and that’s probably the negative for myself and the club.

“The positive side of it is that I’m playing international football and getting that exposure and experience that I can bring back and hopefully use for the club.

“I feel as if my Partick career so far has been a bit stop-start so far. I signed after the season had started and you try your best to get in the team straight away, but all of a sudden you’re off and when the team is training together as a group you’re missing out on a chance to impress and to get into the team.

“I’ve gone three times now on international duty but from now until Christmas there’s six or seven games, so hopefully I can try to get into the team.

“The Christmas period is very busy so there’s going to be chances there and it’s a long season, so after the January international break I’ll have chances to impress too.”

Stop-start is probably an apt description for Partick Thistle’s season as a whole.

Edwards is confident though they can maintain the form that has produced three wins, two draws and just a solitary defeat in their last six matches.

“We’ve shown that when we can pick up a few points how quickly it can move you up the table,” he said.

“On the flip side of that we then had a couple of draws and a loss to Hearts, so we dropped right back down.

“We’re hoping that our good results over the last few weeks will help to push us back up. You can see how close the table is, but as long as we keep playing well and picking up points then it will be shown in the table.

“Our consistency has gotten better over the last few weeks. The Hearts game was a bit of a blip, but apart from that our performances have been really good.

“We’ve had a few draws where we probably should have won, and in the game at the weekend the luck was on our side with the goal in the last minute.

“The points will come, I’m sure.”