Partick Thistle may pitch new signing Thorsten Stuckmann straight into the squad for today’s match against Kilmarnock at Rugby Park.

The German goalkeeper signed on at Firhill yesterday on a short-term deal until January to bolster Alan Archibald's goalkeeping options, after regular number one Tomas Cerny was forced off in last week's defeat to St Johnstone.

The injury to Cerny is a recurrence of an ongoing foot problem, and Archibald will wait until the last possible moment before deciding whether to gamble on his first-choice keeper for today’s game.

Stuckmann, who stands at six feet six inches tall, started his career in his homeland with SC Preußen Münster, and had spells with Eintracht Braunschweig and Alemannia Aachen before moving to England with Preston North End in 2011.

He spent four years with Preston between and was named as the Championship side's Player of the Year in the 2011/12 season.

Thistle manager Archibald has meanwhile left his men in no doubt as to the improvement he expects to see in their performance this afternoon after their poor showing against the Saints last week.

He told SportTimes though that the players themselves know that their showing was unacceptable, and that they are determined to get back on track this afternoon.

“We always get a reaction, the boys know themselves they were poor,” Archibald said.

“It’s just disappointing that we’ve now had two performances like that this season where everybody hasn’t played well.

“We had that on Saturday and we had it in the League Cup at Dundee United where nobody has had pass marks. Saturday was a wee bit different, it was just a bit flat.

“When you’re not playing well there’s even more emphasis should be placed on working hard and stopping the other team from playing at times, especially when you’re not having the best of days.

“We were a bit disappointed in ourselves but the boys don’t shy away from that, they know what they did wrong.

“They want to put it right and they’ve got a chance to do that on Saturday.”

Despite the wholesale changes that Kilmarnock manager Lee Clark has made to his squad, and concerns from their fans over the time it will take them to gel, Archibald is expecting a tough match in Ayrshire.

After a poor start to their season, the Thistle boss has seen enough from today’s opponents in recent weeks to suggest that they will be no soft touches.

“I know they didn’t start well in the League Cup, but that was probably down to the fact it was a whole new squad,” he said.

“I saw them against Dundee and it seems to have clicked for them now.”