RYAN EDWARDS is hoping the cavalry is coming over the hill to help Partick Thistle in their time of need. The Firhill side were without five first-team regulars due to injury for Saturday’s Betfred Cup tie against Livingston meaning a handful of youth players had to fill the bench for Thistle’s first competitive match of the season that they eventually lost via a penalty shoot-out.

Three of those sidelined – Niall Keown, Callum Booth and Abdul Osman – are expected back in the not-too-distant future, while Gary Fraser and Mustupha Dumbuya both face longer lay-offs. With Liam Lindsay, Sean Welsh, and Ade Azeez all having moved on in the summer, it leaves manager Alan Archibald light on options.

Edwards, therefore, was keeping his fingers crossed his stricken team-mates will be back soon to help the team out, and hoped they might yet be joined in the squad by one or two new faces before the window closes at the end of the next month.

The Australian said: “We could definitely do with a few extra bodies. We saw towards the end of last season that we had a good squad where the starting XI was really strong, and so was the bench. But it’s encouraging right now that we have boys coming back, and they’re running so they shouldn’t be too far off.

“Obviously one or two are long-term so we are looking to strengthen the squad with one or two signings as well. We need more competitiveness within the team because it drives everyone forward.”

One player who has returned from long-term injury is Stuart Bannigan who played his first competitive match for 16 months on Saturday. Edwards was happy to see his fellow midfielder back alongside him in the starting line-up.

He added: “Bannigan has been brilliant since he came back and he looks the same player, which is really positive for the club. He looked really good in his first 90 minutes back, and he can kick on from there.”

Although Thistle eventually lost the game – missing three of their four penalties in the shoot-out – there was enough in their first-half play that would have pleased Archibald, including Chris Erskine’s fine strike that gave them the lead. Livingston would cancel that out through Keaghan Jacobs early in the second half but Edwards wasn’t too despondent.

He said: “We started really well in the first 20-25 minutes and we got the goal, and could have got a couple more if we’d taken our chances. When the crowd started to get on the ref’s back, it turned the momentum in Livingston’s favour. Credit to them, they probably deserved it for the rest of the game. They won the battle and had better chances.”

Thistle now have a week to prepare for the visit of Championship title challengers St Mirren to Firhill on Saturday and Edwards feels the squad’s fitness is building day after day, especially through playing competitive matches rather than just friendlies.

“We came back [to training] earlier this year to try and get to match fitness and sharpness. There’s nothing better than playing competitive games. Friendly games are mundane and boring and you just want to get back into the big stuff.

“We had a good group stage last season in the Betfred Cup. Our performances were really good and we went into the league season on the back of some positive results, and won our first match against Inverness.

“It’s important to get momentum. We want to win every game. The most important thing to us is the league. We’re obviously disappointed we didn’t start well but there are more games to come in this competition.”