Partick Thistle manager Ian McCall addresses fixture backlog, Scott Tiffoney injury timescale and Juan Alegria debut ahead of Inverness clash

Partick Thistle manager Ian McCall believes the next four weeks could define which league his side are from the start of next season.

The Jags are facing up to a backlog of Championship fixtures after a series of games were called off over the last two months.

It has left the Firhill club with several games in hand over their fellow title hopefuls in their quest for back-to-back promotions, but they kickstarted a frantic month with an encouraging 1-1 draw against league leaders Arbroath on Tuesday night.

While accepting their situation is far from ideal heading into the final quarter of the season, McCall insists his backroom staff and players will all stick to the same routine they have been used to.

Ahead of tonight’s clash with third-placed Inverness, he said: “(The fixture pile-up) is not ideal for us. We have six games this month and we will have a pretty clear picture of what our target is going to be after that but it is seven games in about 26 days.

“That will be really hard but you just take one at a time, all you can do is your best, simple as that. It’s tough for the players at the moment and that needs to be taken on board.

“Last season we had five or six players who couldn’t walk by the end. There’s no easy way around it, we just have to handle it and do our best.

“There are no easy games in this league and I expect Inverness to be no different, but I’ve been told our home record is one the best in the league, so we just need to keep it going.

“I try to simplify a lot of things to do with football because I think that is the right thing to do, but I always think if you have got seven or eight players playing seven or eight out of 10 you’ll win the games.”

McCall has been rocked by the news he will be without the services of Scott Tiffoney during their busiest period of the season as the winger awaits scan results on an Achilles problem.

The 23-year-old has been arguably Thistle’s standout performer since signing for the club a year ago, but he sat out of recent matches against Morton and Raith Rovers.

Tiffoney returned to the starting line-up against Arbroath but fans were left fearing the worst when he was substituted after just 10 minutes at Gayfield Park.

McCall revealed: “Our physio think the Achilles is totally intact, it is nothing serious, but he may be a couple of weeks anyway.

“Usually that would mean two games but that probably means four or five games with the amount we’ve got, but he won’t be allowed to come back until he’s totally convinced of his fitness.

“To be honest, he trained the day before the game and did a lot of sprinting and was fine. There is obviously a little weakness there that we need to strengthen.

“He will be a big loss but he missed the Morton game and we played really, really well that night, even though we got beat. He didn’t play in the second half against the league leaders and we were very dominant.

“This is the first time he has been a regular really in his career and he has been a revelation, I don’t think there is any doubt about that.

“The level of consistency he’s shown as a winger (is impressive) and he’s really direct as well. He is great to watch, I love watching him so of course we will miss him.

“But that’s why we have got other players and the games he missed, we should have won three or four nothing against Morton and we did really well against Arbroath in the second half.”

Striker Juan Alegria made his debut for the Jags after coming off the bench in the second half, just 24 hours after joining the Maryhill outfit on loan from Rangers until the end of the campaign.

McCall was pleased with the Colombian’s impact but outlined the importance of re-discovering their attacking prowess after finding the net just once in their last four outings in all competitions.

He admitted: “I thought Juan did really well. For a 19-year-old he’s a very strong boy.

“If we start him (against Inverness), whether he will last 90 minutes I don’t know because he is all-action and the intensity of these games will be a wee bit more than Lowland League, without being disrespectful in any way.

“I was just really pleased with him and his attitude is brilliant. We need people to take a wee bit of the heat off Brian (Graham).

“He’s scored 18 goals, which is great - top scorer in the league and he wants to get to 20-plus. I’m sure he will, but we need to add from other players.

“That’s why it was really good the other night that (right-back) Ciaran McKenna got a goal - you need to have goals from all over the pitch.

“I said before I think he will be a big player for us and so will Alex Jakubiak as well, who was really unlucky not to play the other night.

“We have only scored one in three or four games or whatever but with out games in hand if we score a couple of goals in them, we’re top scorers in the league so we’ve got to remember that and think of that”.