Booth blow forces Jags into transfer market

Partick Thistle manager Alan Archibald admits he will have to dip back into the transfer market after defender Callum Booth was ruled out for three months.

The left-back damaged knee ligaments in Saturday’s defeat by St Johnstone and his injury leaves Archibald shy on cover at full-back. The Jags boss says he will now have to find a replacement before next Thursday’s transfer deadline.

“I wasn’t planning on doing any more business and we thought we were finished last week,” he said. “But Callum Booth got a bad knee injury last week at St Johnstone so we might have to go back in and get some cover in at full-back.

“We think he will be out for 12 weeks. He’s torn his posterior cruciate ligament so it’s quite a bad one.”

Meanwhile, St Johnstone have confirmed the signing of Colchester United striker Denny Johnstone on a seasonlong loan deal. The 22-year-old will go into the Saints squad forthepremiershipclashwith Celtic at Parkhead tomorrow.

0 Callum Booth: Knee injury.

Boss Tommy Wright was pleased to bring in a player he believes “ticks a lot of boxes” for the Mcdiarmid Park side.

He said: “I am pleased to get him. He has got quality and in the market we are in, it is a great option. He will improve the team. He is only 22, he has a presence and when you look at his record in the Championship with Morton, he scored 14 or 15 goals in 30 games or so, and we want to try to get him back to that.’’

Johnstone came through the youth ranks at Celtic but did not feature for the first team before joining Birmingham City in 2014. He went on to have loan spells with Macclesfield, Cheltenham, Burton Albion and Morton before signing for Colchester in 2016.