Partick Thistle may look to strengthen their squad in the January transfer window according to assistant manager Scott Paterson.

With back-up goalkeeper Thorsten Stuckmann seeming likely to leave the club and Ryan Scully still injured, it seems likely that another keeper will be on the Firhill shopping list.

And with youngsters James Penrice and David Wilson heading out on loan, there is scope for some other new arrivals this month as Thistle look to maintain their recent improved form.

“There’s always a possibility that we might strengthen, but that’s the key word,” Paterson said. “We only want to bring a player in if they will make us better.

“We’ve still got the likes of Stuart Bannigan, Mustapha Dumbuya, Ryan Scully and Gary Fraser out and they are all fantastic players. It would be great to have them back, but it shows the strength of the squad that we have coped ok without them.

“You never know though, if the right player comes along then there is every chance we could do something, we’ll just have to wait and see.”

The Thistle players are currently enjoying a well-deserved week off after two wins and a draw from their last three fixtures saw them enter the winter break in seventh place.

They will then jet off for some warm-weather training to La Manga, but if any of the players think they are in for a holiday then Paterson warned that they had better think again.

His priority now is to make sure the Thistle squad are in the best possible shape when they return to action in the Scottish Cup against Formartine United on January 21st.

“We’ll be looking to make the the most of the break,” he said. “We’ll give the boys a few days off and allow them to recover a wee bit, and then obviously when we come back we’ll be working them hard for the next couple of weeks.

“It will be good for any of the lads who are carrying injuries or wee niggles and hopefully it can be good for the squad.

“These trips and get-togethers with the squad can be good morale builders, but at the end of the day it’s all about hard work.”

The players and staff at Firhill went into the winter break in good spirits given their recent form, and Paterson admits that even though he wasn’t panicking when they were rooted to the foot of the table, life always seems a little better the higher you are up the table.

“The table wasn’t very good to look at just a week or so ago, but it’s a very tight league and we always knew that one or two wins can make things look an awful lot better,” he said.

“The players have been playing well and we’ve been satisfied with how the boys have been performing, but we are well aware that the biggest problem this season has been scoring goals and taking the chances we are creating.

“We are creating good chances in every game, and the reason why we found ourselves down where we were was that we haven’t been taking enough of them.

“We’ve also been conceding a lot of soft goals as a team, and we’ve been guilty of switching off at times.

“Overall though there are plenty of positives to take, and hopefully that’s us on the right track now.

“The nature of this league is that you’re either top six or bottom six, but I don’t necessarily think that if you wind up in the bottom six that it should be deemed as a failure.

“But the way the league is set up means that every team is desperate to get into the top six. At clubs like ours it would be a great achievement and a massive step forward, and that’s what we’ve set out to do at the start of each season.”