Stu hopes new deal can inspire him to help Banish Jags slump
STUART Bannigan is hoping that the security of a longerterm deal with Partick Thistle can help him rediscover his best form and lead the Jags up the Championship table.
The midfielder put pen to paper on a new 18-month deal on Thursday that will keep him at Firhill until summer 2020, bringing up his decade of service to the club.
Bannigan admits it was a relief to commit his immediate future to the club he loves, and despite the current predicament Thistle find themselves in at the bottom end of the Championship, he insists there is nowhere he would rather be.
“I feel great to have signed up again,” said Bannigan. “I was really happy that the club offered me another 18 months, and I was delighted to get it signed before the January window opens. I can settle down now and get back to playing every week and enjoying myself.
“It’s a relief to get something a bit longer term. It’s been a bit of a nightmare the last year surrounding where I’m going to be or if I was even going to get something at Thistle, especially in the summer where I wasn’t quite sure if they were going to offer me anything.
“As soon as Thistle offered me a deal that I was happy with, there was no doubt where I was going to stay.
“There was a couple of clubs that would have definitely taken me had I decided to move on, but I’ve been at the club for so long and I hold Thistle so dearly that there was no doubt I was going to sign here.
“This gives me a bit more security, but now I need to try and push on and help push the team up the league if I can. We all really enjoy working under the manager and I feel we are getting there.
“I just need to keep improving. I know I’ve got a lot better in me, there are levels that I feel I can push up towards, so I’m just going to keep my head down and keep working hard for this club.”
While Bannigan is pleased to have his own future sorted, the immediate focus for his team is very much on what they can do in the short term.
“We know that we’ve let ourselves down this season with the results,” he said. “It’s not been good enough.
“I don’t think we can look too far into the future just now. Our short-term aim has to be to pull away from the relegation spots as quickly as possible if we can. That’s our number one aim, and then we’ll take it from there.
“There is plenty of time if we can put a run of results together to climb the table, but all we are focusing on just now is getting away from the bottom.
“We’re massively disappointed with where we are just now. The results don’t lie,