ALAN ARCHIBALD hopes to open talks with his out-of-contract stars sooner rather than later as he looks to convince them to remain at Firhill.

The Partick Thistle boss has a number of players who are able to leave the club on a free at the end of the campaign, with the likes of Paul Gallacher, Stephen O'Donnell and Kallum Higginbotham all coming to the end of their current deals.

Archibald is keen to bolster his Jags ranks before the end of the transfer window to give his side the best shot possible of claiming a place in the Premiership top six this season.

But attentions will soon turn to keeping his tried and trusted stalwarts at the club as Thistle bid to avoid losing their top talents in the summer.

Archibald said: "It is something I want to do. We are looking where we are going to be and what money we have got. It costs money to give people new, improved deals, and things are tight.

"Hopefully by the end of January I will be able to start sitting down and talking to players. It is something I want to get done. We know the situation we are in, so we can't just go and start handing out big deals.

"It is risk we take and we will probably lose one or two, there is no doubt about that. But, the grass isn't always greener. All we can do is offer them the best deal we can and try and sell the club to them and convince them that this is a good place to be.

"I am not pushing anyone out this month. If they want to go, they can come and see me and, if we get interest, then fair enough.

"It will need to be done quite soon because we don't want to leave ourselves short going into the last week of the window."

After seeing their clash with Ross County on Saturday postponed due to a power cut in Dingwall, Thistle hope to return to Premiership duty when they face St Johnstone this weekend.

The Jags are eight points adrift of Tommy Wright's side in the top flight table and in need of a win to kick-start their push onwards and upwards.

And Archibald has urged his Firhill stars to take inspiration from the Saints recent good form as they look to string together a sustained run of results and move into top six contention this term.

He said: "They are not far away from us but they have opened up a bit of a gap after going on a good run.

"It will be a tough test for us and it is always a hard game against them, there has only ever been a goal in it at most since we came back up to the Premiership I think.

"It will be another tight affair I would imagine but it is a game we are looking forward to.

"They came to Firhill earlier in the season on the back of a bad run and were happy to go away with a point.

"That kicked them on and it is something we need to do if we want to move up the table.

"We need to put a run together and the boys know that they are capable of it so hopefully that starts this weekend."