KRIS DOOLAN is in the market for a new goalkeeper after Myles Roberts was recalled to parent club Watford earlier this week - but the Partick Thistle manager downplayed rumours of Harry Milne following the 23-year-old out the exit at Firhill.

Roberts returned to Vicarage Road with the intention of being loaned back out to Ross County, but an injury crisis at the English Championship club has left Roberts as the only fit keeper in the first team, and he is expected to feature in the short term at least.

It leaves Doolan short of a shot-stopper, though, and the Jags boss admits that the Englishman’s departure is a blow.

“Myles has been brilliant, absolutely brilliant,” Doolan said. “But obviously, when he's recalled, we can't stop it. You can't do anything.

“He's gone back to Watford. I think three of their goalkeepers have got injured at the same time, if I heard correctly. So they've only got one goalkeeper.

“I think you’re a victim of your own success at times. Teams will come and cherry-pick players away when they're doing well, and Myles was doing well.

“Watford obviously see a lot in him as well. So it’s brilliant for him and I wish him all the best. He's been brilliant to have. He came up here and we've almost given him a career that he can push on from, hopefully. We want to be that type of club that teams look at and they want to send their good young players to us as well.”

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Doolan added: “So it's a great feather in Partick Thistle's cap that we've hopefully helped with that. But it's still sore that we lose him because he's a big player and he's a great guy as well.”

David Mitchell made his first league appearance of the season in Saturday’s 4-1 thrashing at the hands of Dunfermline, but Doolan is keen to add further competition in the goalkeeping department.

“Yeah, we will be [bringing in another goalkeeper],” Doolan confirmed. “It [Roberts’ recall] came really late for the Dunfermline game. To find that out as late as we did was really difficult. There was nothing we could have done about it.

“The good thing is Mitch [David Mitchell] is fully fit, fully ready to go and back in. We'll be looking to get another one in as quickly as we possibly could.

“At this point it would probably be a loan you'd be looking at in this kind of window. Either way, it's a position we're going to have to address. So we will.”

If Roberts’ departure was a sore one for the Thistle support to stomach, then the prospect of Milne following the keeper out the door would have the effect of pouring salt on an already sore wound.

Rumours of a permanent move to Dundee this month for the left-back, who is out of contract at the end of the season, abound - but Doolan stressed that no official contact has been made.

(Image: SNS) “To be honest, there's not been anything at this end,” Doolan explained. “I think it's just chit-chat if I'm honest. I don't really know because probably social media stirs all this stuff up. People start things and then it just rocks off. I actually don't know.

“But in terms of officially, nothing's been official at all. We just deal with what's official. I would only ever deal with things if it was official. Not really what people would be mentioning on social media. Right now, there's not been anything from anybody for Harry Milne.”

Doolan added that he and Milne have discussed the defender’s future at length, long before the transfer window reopened.

“Well, it's not something I actually leave till January, if I'm honest,” he said. “It's a two-way process

“I've got good communication with all the players. I will speak to them. I'll have the hard conversations if I have to.

“With Harry and the other guys who are coming out of contract, I wouldn't wait till January. I like to get these things moving prior to January so I know where we're standing.

“But it's a two-way process. It's not a case of we want it done so it gets done. Players obviously have their own careers that they want to foresee and be in charge of, so some will wait and see what comes up.

“We've had these kinds of conversations anyway, so we kind of knew coming out of this window - what might happen, what might not happen. But touching on Harry, for us, there's nothing official. Therefore, there's nothing really to talk about.”

Looking ahead to tonight’s Championship encounter away to Hamilton - should the fixture survive the frost and go ahead - Doolan is looking for a response to the Jags’ humbling defeat to Dunfermline last weekend.

“Yeah, definitely, he said. “I think we all know it was well under par - funnily enough, against Dunfermline. We looked miles off it.

“It was a really, really poor game for us, so it can’t happen again. We've been through everything. We sat down, had a meeting, went through what went wrong, what we can fix.

“All you can really do then is train. In between games, the only thing you can do is work hard at training. That's what we've done. We'll prepare properly for Hamilton, but hopefully we'll get that response that we're looking for.

“I don't think there's any changes [to the squad]. Harry Milne is obviously out injured just now. He's due back on the 20th. So is Aaron Muirhead. They're both looking to return on that kind of date. Dan Mackay is due back around the end of the month. So that's it. That's the three that will be working their way back. But no changes to the squad.”