PATIENCE is not commonly a virtue attributed to your average football fan. Gary Caldwell is young for a manager, but he has been around the block often enough to know this to be one of football’s great truths.

So, the 36-year-old went into the Partick Thistle job with his eyes wide open. Unfortunately for the Thistle faithful, early results in his fledgling Firhill tenure have strengthened a temptation to pull the covers over the head and pretend that the last 18 months didn’t happen.

That is the long, slow tide of underachievement that Caldwell is trying to turn around, as he looks to pull Thistle off the downwards arc the team have been on since making the Premiership’s top six under Alan Archibald in April of last year.

He is steadfast in his faith that he is the man to do that, but he has sounded a note of caution after losing his first four matches in charge; he needs more time. And he is certain that the Firhill board will give it to him.

“The support I’ve felt from the board here and the honesty and openness of the whole football club has been refreshing and excites me for the future,” Caldwell said.

“We’re trying to implement certain things that we are changing within the football club, but it doesn’t happen overnight. I can’t just click my fingers to change results. They are probably the last thing that comes into place.

“Certain things we have changed are getting better, but the fans don’t see that. They see the result on a Saturday, and I understand their disappointment and their frustration. But it is coming.”

While his points return has been dispiriting so far for Caldwell, he is enthused by most of what he has seen from his squad of players. The one thing that has concerned him is their mental resilience.

That weakness was starkly laid bare in the 5-1 trouncing at Morton, but while it may not have been as perceptible in narrower defeats they have suffered, he is certain it was the difference between winning and losing.

“The performance at Morton was unacceptable, but the three other games could have went either way, and we’ve just fallen on the wrong side of those results,” he said.

“That happens when you are where we are in the league. I believe that is down to mentality and decision-making under pressure when the game gets to the later stages. We have to keep our composure, keep our control that we have early in the game.

“If we do that, I’m sure we’ll get a victory, then things can turn very quickly. It’s not been difficult to work with the players. They have been excellent, very receptive.”

Even if results do pick up between now and the New Year, as Caldwell believes they will, he acknowledges that the January transfer window will be a critical juncture in Thistle’s season, and perhaps even in his reign.

“Without a doubt we will look to strengthen and be better come the end of January so that we can progress throughout the rest of the season,” he said.

“I understand the process we need to go through as a club and I understand how important January is. The decisions we make must be right to build for the future.”