TALKING THISTLE Bannigan backs Jags pal Gary to beat his injury hell
PARTICK THISTLE comeback star Stuart Bannigan has backed his friend Gary Fraser to follow him back from a long period on the sidelines into the Jags’ midfield.
The two players were together almost every day as they have painstakingly worked their way back to fitness over the last 18 months, providing support to one another during some of the darkest moments of their careers.
Bannigan has now made his return to first-team action, starting both of Thistle’s league fixtures so far this term, and he has his fingers crossed that it won’t be too long before Fraser is joining him in the Thistle engine room.
“I don’t need to listen to his terrible songs anymore which is a good thing,” Bannigan joked.
“Gary is out of the gym now and he’s out on the training pitch doing a bit of running and a bit of ball-work, so fingers crossed for him it shouldn’t be too long.
“It’s been a frustrating time for him. He never had a major injury like a cruciate or a broken leg, it was more of a weird injury where they would struggle to pinpoint where the pain was coming from at times.
“He seems to be getting over that now, and he says he is feeling a lot better, so fingers crossed for him that we see him back playing in maybe four to six weeks.”
Thistle may have lost both of their opening fixtures against Hibs and Celtic, but for Bannigan, just being out on a football pitch has softened the blow of those defeats, at least a little.
“It’s been good individually for me,” he said. “Obviously, I was glad to play both of the league games, and play a major part in them.
“I’m disappointed with the results, but we probably couldn’t have picked two harder games to start the season with.
“I’m feeling good. I feel as if I still have a couple of gears to get up to in terms of my match fitness, especially towards the end of the games when I’ve been falling away a wee bit.
“There’s certain things in the game too that happen, but I don’t think I’m letting the team down even though I can definitely do better.
“Just getting out there was a great feeling to start with, even if you’re playing badly it’s a great feeling.
“Then you have the first tackle, then the first 90 minutes, and you have to take each step as it comes.
“I’m not even thinking about tackles or anything like that now, that’s all out of my head, it’s just about getting to the levels I know I can get to.”
BANNIGAN believes that he has come into a much better side than the one he limped out of at Tynecastle a year and a half ago, and that the progress of the club since is evidenced in the signings of Miles Storey and Conor Sammon.
“Two or three seasons ago, no disrespect to the club, but they might have looked at Partick Thistle and thought they could get better than that,” he said.
“They are seeing the club now, the way we like to play football and the fact we are growing as a club, and they are seeing a great opportunity to come here and play.
“We’ve signed a lot of good players and we seem to have established ourselves now. We’ve secured the deal for the training ground so everything seems to be rosy.
“The only hard part will be me trying to force myself into the team!” ANDREW CONSIDINE feels Aberdeen have come full circle to having as strong a squad as they have ever had during his 400 appearances for the club.
The defender reached the landmark during last Saturday’s victory over Ross County, which saw Stevie May make his debut alongside summer signings such as Ryan Christie, Gary MackaySteven and Greg Stewart.
Considine played with the likes of Russell Anderson, Scott Severin, Barry Nicholson and Lee Miller during his early years and helped the Dons reach the knockout stages of the Uefa Cup, where they held Bayern Munich at Pittodrie.
And he feels as optimistic as ever as Derek McInnes’ side look to continue their 100 per cent start to the Ladbrokes Premiership season against Dundee.
The 30-year-old said: “The squad we had when Jimmy Calderwood was here when we got into Europe was very strong.
“We had a number of Scottish internationalists at the time. It was a very, very strong squad.
“But we have almost built it up again. We had a couple of crazy years but the manager has come in and done very well and built much and such the same kind of squad.
“It’s definitely up there with one of the strongest I have been involved in.”
On his own achievement, the defender added: “It’s an absolute honour to be in amongst such names as Bobby Clark, Jim Leighton, Willie Miller, Alex McLeish, Russell Anderson.”
Considine has been thinking about Calderwood this week after the 62-year-old revealed he had been diagnosed with young onset Alzheimer’s Disease.
He said: “My thoughts go out to him and his family. I hope he’s getting well looked after and he is doing all right.”